The four of them were now outside on the sandy beach, Brittany with a look of indifference on her face while Drissel had her small smile before her focus drifted to Brittany. "Hey! Pay attention!" She shouted, smacking Brittany on the head, eliciting a frown from the blonde. "I'm watching bitch! Or do you expect me to wear that stupid smile that you have?!"
Her words earned another smack from Drissel despite her effort to dodge. "Just watch, you ungrateful brat!" Drissel sighed, her focus going to Andrew and Charlotte. "All you have to do today is accumulate more grains of sand and form a ball like this, just like what we did last time." Andrew's words carried something Brittany didn't know he had: tenderness.
Charlotte stretched her arm out and formed a ball of sand similar to the one Andrew had formed. "Smaller, but enough for this."
*Whoosh*
Rocks placed a few meters away were hurled into the ocean, both their rocks equally thrown in terms of distance. "Did you see that?!" Drissel asked immediately, as if Brittany had been asleep during their performance. "It was then throwing rocks, for crying out loud, what was there to do but pick up?" Her hands stretched out in frustration, only for another smack to connect with her head.
"It's a matter of technique. What you're doing, Brittany, is doing exactly what I'm telling you. I don't care how you do it, given that the output is what I want to see, then I don't care." Brittany glared at Andrew with a look of betrayal in her eyes. "Maybe I would make far more progress if I wasn't being scolded every five minutes!"
Drissel faced Andrew and Charlotte, a small smile on her face. "You see what I have to deal with?" Charlotte let out a small chuckle before she went back to practicing with Andrew. "As for you, we'll be doing something different today. Let's see how high you can jump. You have a bat weave, so you should be able to do this."
*Whoosh*
Drissel leapt ten meters into the air before gracefully landing. "I should be able to do something like that!" Brittany groaned as she leapt into the air, replicating Drissel's feat. "Not bad, so do this."
*Whoosh*
Drissel leapt once more, this time far higher and making her way over the cliff that oversaw the beach, about fifty meters up. A look of disbelief could be seen on Brittany's face. "How the fuck am I supposed to make that? I could barely do the first one." Drissel's legs dangled over the edge, a look of disappointment plastered on her face. "Have you learnt nothing?! Were you actually sleeping or what?!"
Brittany looked around before an idea popped into her head. 'Don't blame me for this, but this is what you want to see, right?' She made a leap onto the cliff wall, grabbing a ledge before continuing and eventually making her way all the way to Drissel. "Not bad; however, try with less hanging. You're a human, not a fucking monkey!"
*Bam*
Drissel landed a kick on Brittany's face, sending the latter hurled all the way back down to the sandy ground.
*Thud*
"Argh!!" Brittany cried as she clutched her back, protrusions of small rocks now embedded in her back. "I think you broke my spine, bitch!" Drissel rose to her feet before falling all the way back down, her descent graceful as ever. "Why the fuck are you so weak? Answer me this, Brittany." Drissel tilted her head, as if Brittany would have been fine from dropping at such a height. "What do you mean why I'm so weak? There's no way that I could make that kind of drop without breaking a bone in my body!"
Drissel looked at Andrew, a murmur leaving her lips. "Andrew was right about you being spoiled with luxury." A small gleam of red left Drissel's index and shot into Brittany's body, mending her injuries. "On second thought, I think it would be best for you to focus on your landing since you'll be falling a lot," Drissel posed as she lifted Brittany all the way to the top of the cliff with her telekinesis.
Brittany, who was still recovering from her spine, was left speechless. "There's no way that she expects me to jump from here! Is she insane?!" Her gaze scoping over Drissel before drifting over to Charlotte and Andrew, who seemed to have taken a break as they broke into jokes, amusing themselves before noticing Brittany's gaze. "You'll be fine, Brittany, and if not, what are a few broken bones?" Charlotte's words painted Brittany as crazy in the group.
'There's no actual way that they want me to jump!' She mused, certain that they wanted her dead. "I'm not jumping!" Her declaration elicited a sigh from Drissel, who turned to face Charlotte. "How high can you throw her? She'll be fine, so don't worry about her dying." Charlotte narrowed her gaze on Brittany's trembling figure, which inched further and further away from the cliff. "About fifty meters higher than she already is."
A smile formed on Drissel's lips. "More than enough; do it." Brittany, who was crawling away from the edge, was now hurled into the air. "If heights is what you're afraid of, then I don't care how many times we'll be doing this till this fear is out of your body," Drissel shouted as Brittany's figure was hurling towards the ground
*Splat*
Her head caved open, blood spilling out and painful groans leaving her throat before she passed. "Come on, Brittany, we'll be here till you get this." Drissel turned to face the pair. "Thanks, you can leave if you want while I focus on this stubborn student." A red gleam shot from Drissel's tip, bringing Brittany back to life. "Gah!" She let out a gasp, her hair on end as she looked at Drissel, who had a look of disappointment on her face.
"We'll be doing this, Brittany, till you get this right, so up you go. When you're ready to jump off, tell me." The moments that followed were Brittany's body crashing to the ground, her screams and pains now background noise to the three. The process went on for two hours before Brittany grew accustomed to the pain. "Fine! I'll jump off now!" She shouted before Drissel shot her up once more, only to let her drop to her death.
"There's the response I was waiting for; however, to make sure that you mean it, I'll do this a few more times before I stop. I hope that it's okay with you. Another hour lapsed; by now Brittany's fear of heights was replaced with hatred for Drissel before she was given a chance of making the jump. Air billowed her hair; the fear she had three hours ago now forcefully carved out of her own brain as she leapt off the cliff.
From the repetitive jumps and repairs done to her body, the pain now wasn't as painful; however, her legs weren't completely untouched.
*Crack*
Her femurs fractured and her kneecaps bent backward. "Argh!!!" She cried out in pain. Drissel, indifferent to her pain, covered her face in frustration. "Do you have to embarrass me like this? You're lucky that Andrew and Charlotte left hours ago, or I would have to make you pay for crying like this!" Drissel sighed as she repaired Brittany's legs. "You aren't the one doing this, so you can't relate! After all, your job is to make sure that I experience the most amount of pain as possible!"
Drissel narrowed her gaze, not in offense but in surprise. "I'm sorry, delicate flower, but how do you think Andrew trained me? It wasn't as light as I am with you. The first thing he did with me was let me fall from a thousand-meter drop, and he would do that for a week till I stopped crying! You're lucky that I'm going easy on you because, trust me when I say this, if I wanted to make your life hell, it wouldn't be hard, dear."
The distance between the two now inches apart. "So get your ass off the ground and make that leap. I don't care how you do it, just do it like me!" Any trace of a smile gone from Drissel's face as she stared into Brittany's eyes, the latter quickly falling silent. For the rest of the day, Brittany tried as she might, but never made the leap. Drissel, as the sun set, only let out a frustrated groan.
"We'll be here for the rest of the night and tomorrow, I'm not leaving till you get this!" Drissel urged, her arms crossed as she watched Brittany's body rise and fall on the side of the cliff.
. . .
"Aren't they coming for dinner?" Charlotte asked Andrew, the two engrossed in their meals. "Brittany's having a problem with a jump is all. She should make it eventually." Andrew said half heatedly with his focus on how food. "Why is Drissel so rough with Brittany? It's clear that she's trying her best to do as told." Charlotte insisted, unsure why the two were favoring her over Brittany. Something she easily picked up on.
"Unlike you, dear, Brittany has a small hubris issue that Drissel doesn't like. It's because of this hubris as well that Brittany fell out of Charles's good graces as well." Charlotte paused; she had heard the two talk about Charles. "Who exactly is Charles? So far he seems rather important to the two of you, like a leader of sorts." Andrew looked up, his gesture making Charlotte think she had overstepped.
"I apologize if I said something that I shouldn't have." Her hands stretching towards Andrew, frantically apologizing. "Your curiosity is reasonable; maybe you'll be able to meet him. But for that, you'll have to be alive. As much as you may be far more talented than Brittany, don't let this cloud your judgement and think that you are superior to her."
His words followed with fervent nods from Charlotte. "There's no way that I would think of something like that!" Andrew beamed a smile, the same that Charlotte was still getting used to seeing. "Can I have your silence? Last year you promised me the melody of the abyss, but now I want what you wear. I'm sure it's related." His half lid eyes met her perky, glittering eyes. "My silence is something that requires time to attain, Charlotte, not something you get from training but from loss. Specifically, loss of interest in the world around you. A luxury you can't afford now, but I'll teach you how."
She looked back at her own food, his mild gaze something she couldn't hold for long before her being wished to look elsewhere. "Every single time I look at you, it's as if I shouldn't even be seeing you and yet here, seated across from me." A.smile crept onto her lips, subconscious but she didn't fight it. "We'll be checking on a friend of yours. She may be of great help to you on your journey."
Before Charlotte could ask why, Drissel's voice echoed through. "It's the middle of the night, but she pulled it off." On her shoulder, dangling Brittany unconscious, who was carelessly placed on the sofa before Drissel made her way to the dining table. "I don't think she'll be able to bear this level of training, Andrew." She posed, stealing glances at Brittany, fast asleep. "She'll have to, you did, didn't you? Or is your point stemming from a place of jealousy?"
Drissel flashed an unamused face. "Of course I'm definitely into Andrew!" Her words dripped with sarcasm. "Of course not! I'm nothing more than your helper, and I don't plan on stepping past that line." Andrew now looked at Drissel, a face of suspicion present. "Really? Because when you met me back then, you seemed way too ecstatic to meet me. Brittany thought we were in a relationship."
Drissel cleared her throat, her attention going back to her food. "Please, a person like her wouldn't know any better. I'm not into you, Andrew, and any signs you come up with are nothing more than a dream on your end."