Body Cultivation Hurts - Chapter 26

Nathan may have been the first to bleed or break a bone with Silvester’s cultivation-enhanced shin kicks, but his example hadn’t been ignored. As soon as he’d finished with deadlifts, he heard reports of at least five people losing their breakfast. He was proud.

Did he really expect them to follow him to the same body-breaking extreme. No. At least not at every station. It was also still early. As people started to grasp what they’d gotten themselves into, they’d also start to see the benefits. The more they personally experienced it, the harder they’d push. Not necessarily to their very limit and collapsed, but they’d draw far closer to it than they ever would’ve without him.

The truth was, to advance to the blood realm, it wasn’t necessary to go to such an extreme. However, he hadn’t lied about the importance of their foundation.

Instead of running around from station to station, he’d moved on to the next exercise and worked in with everyone there. He’d smacked his shins on the bar after doing 800kg, or 1763lbs, for 127 reps deadlifting before barely catching himself with his hands from faceplanting on the floor.

The crowd that had gathered this time was less than it had been for his world record breaking set of squats. It was because the group working out didn’t stop this time.

He was going heavy, so next he did bent over rows followed by shoulder press. There was no pullup bar here, or pull-down machine, so he’d save that part of his back for the horizontal bar in the bodyweight section. There would be straps for weights waiting for him.

This time around, he didn’t do any Olympic lifts and the work on his calves and chest was sorely lacking. By the time he moved down the wall toward the area to work high-risk movements, he was already fully recovered. With the same intensity, but with a stronger focus on form. Split squat, hip flexor lifts, tibialis raise, and of course the much neglective toe and feet exercises. A stretchy band for each toe, push and pull. Flexibility training would take care of the rest.

From there, he moved on to abduction and adduction of the hips with even more heavy-duty bands. Finishing up, he worked his rotator cuffs before his wrists and finally his neck. All of the muscle groups he did before neck were back-to-back without using a pill between exercises. Of these he also did more than one set. With a form-fitting head strap, a much more intense workout began. Rotation, upward, downward movements and sideward bends on both sides.

Once he was done, he let the strap and machine it was hooked to hold up his head because he wasn’t sure what would happen if he unstrapped right away. Taking another pill, he moved on.

Seeing that sprinting was next, he couldn’t help but put on a silly grin. Power work was just grueling, but sprinting was one of his favorite movements. Ultimately, there were twenty 100-meter lanes. For the current him, 100 meters wasn’t a far distance. That meant there was only one option, suicides from one side line to the other then back again.

***

“Should we talk to him?” Jess asked where everyone in the immediate area could hear.

Kyle cringed, but she didn’t see it. She was obviously taking Nathan’s revelations hard, but the way he pushed himself at each station had the entire auditorium keeping an eye on him at all times.

And what was he supposed to say? “Hey, Nate. I’ve been talking to the others, and they all think you need to chill. Yeah, I get that you saw Earth destroyed by demon-aliens, but…” That’s just insane. Who was he to say if Nathan’s reaction was healthy or not?

“Let him get it out of his system,” he finally said. “It’s not like there’s any permanent damage to his body.”

The group of guys that had taken up following Nathan had finished loading a heavy-duty, push sled with weight. It had been a cage of steel before loaded, but now? They’d loaded it with 2,000lbs worth of plates. It was a literal ton.

Next to him, a second cage was loaded with the same weight. Oleksiy Kulyk, three-time World’s Strongest Man, stood a head and a half over Nathan. He’d been huge before initiation, but after he hadn’t even needed to pick a giant race to be considered one. Standing more than eight foot tall alone made him exceptional. In addition, he was as thickly muscled as a grizzly.

“He can’t win,” Rich said, flicking his sweat-logged hair out of his eyes. “Can he?”

“He’s huge. There’s a chance,” Kyle replied without thinking.

“Wait, you think—I was talking about Nathan…”

“Nathan will win,” Jess insisted, stepping up and crossing her arms across her chest as if daring them to oppose her.

Their gym’s own giant, Justin, stepped up at Jess’s side. “It’s hard to know how difficult it will be. Strongest man competitors often pull vehicles, but those are on axles. It just depends on how much friction there is. I think 2,000lbs is close to what top NFL players do on turf with these types of sled. So it’s definitely at an elite level. Nathan might even have an advantage because of his shorter build. It will be easier for him to get low.”

They then watched both men get into place, and it was like the giant Kulyk had heard them. He didn’t move like a big man at all. It wasn’t natural for him to be that big and also so nimble. He was able to get low with ease—even if his hands seemingly dwarfed the metal poles sticking up for him to use as handholds.

Nathan looked more normal? He wasn’t a small guy, but next to Kulyk he looked like a boy still awaiting his growth spurt.

Someone called it. At the word go, Kulyk lurched forward. It was only a half foot, but after it got moving, he didn’t let up. The strongest-man competitor was very familiar with what he needed to do.

To Kyle’s shock, Nathan didn’t even move. He just… Could he not get such a heavy load started?

After he got moving, the Ukrainian picked up the pace. Impressively so. It wasn’t fast, but maybe a normal walking pace?

He then saw Nathan peek out from behind his sled to see how the man was doing. The full length of the space they had was the same as the sprinting area. There was a full 100-meter stretch, and then some to let one slow down. They’d had a sled at the MMA gym, but it had only been 25 meters at the most.

“Is he?” Jess said, stammering. “Do you think he’s over did it with the other workouts and injured himself?”

Justin shook his head. “No.”

She glared at him, but it didn’t look like he intended to say more. “After this, someone should talk to him. Maybe the pills only work so many times. Or maybe he didn’t let himself recover completely between—”

The second sled lurched forward. Nathan began to move. Kulyk was already twenty meters in front of him when his sled jumped. It was only three or four feet before coming to a complete stop.

“He. No…” Jess began, but then it happened.

Their old gym mate surged forward another few feet before stopping.

“He’s purposely making it harder on himself,” Justin said. “Look at his form.”

Kyle spotted it as soon as he’d said it. Nathan was taking exaggerated steps while holding his calf at full extension. Then he let the weight stop before taking another lunging step. Getting the sled moving in the first place was the hardest part. The Ukrainian was taking smaller, quick steps to take advantage of the sled’s momentum.

After moving it twice, his friend didn’t stop. The third step came quicker, but he still let the sled slow before driving with the other foot. His forward motion was jerky. There was a control to it that the Ukrainian simply couldn’t duplicate.

Despite muscling through it, there was only a few moments before Kyle realized that his friend’s pace was actually faster than Kulyk’s—if he could keep it up.

“The jerk,” Jess said in exasperation.

“No.” Justin said again. “Watch.”

She also glared at him again, but she seemed to think better of it and just turned back to the contest.

Kulyk was nearing the hallway point when Nathan was only ten meters behind. Then the most ridiculous thing happened.

“If you don’t get moving, I’m going to catch you, big man,” Nathan taunted from behind. He wasn’t even breathing hard.

To Kyle’s utter astonishment, the Ukrainian responded, but not with words. If he was going at a walking pace before, he was jogging now.

As the big man upped the pace, Nathan did as well. His moment became less jerky, but he continued to emphasize full range of motion.

“As a three-time world’s strongest man, Kulyk done this exercise thousands of times,” Justin said. “He’s so set in what he should be able to do that he was holding himself back. Nathan isn’t showing off. He’s helping him.”

When Kyle looked over at him, the guy was watching him. It seemed Justin had been saying it for his sake. He nodded to the man. He’d always been quiet, but just like with his Jiu Jitsu game, he was always a few moves ahead.

The competitors neared the end of the 100-meter track. Kulyk suddenly slowed with 20 meters to go, and Nathan cried out, “Don’t stop breathing, or I really am going to catch you. It’s not air you need. It’s qi.”

It took the big man a moment, but soon he returned to his top speed. He reached the end first when the crazy guy that had returned from the future taunted him again. “You done?”

Jogging around the sled, he lowered himself and started to push.

“Does he really have that much energy that he thinks he can make it all the way back?” Rich asked. “I can’t go from one end to the other in our little gym without my heart pounding.”

When the competitor passed each other as Nathan was about to reach the end, he challenged, “Don’t wait for me.”

The giant man didn’t. It didn’t take him but a few quick steps before he was going at full speed. No, he was moving even faster.

As if he’d been waiting for this, Nathan walked around his sled to get position on the opposite end and took a moment to watch his opponent. He grinned. Then with a mighty heave, he shouted, “I’m coming.”

There was no struggle as the 2,000lb sled sprang into motion. The Ukrainian would be reaching the hallway point soon, but…

Nathan roared as he got the thing up to a run. He would soon catch him when Kulyk must have heard him for he sped even more.

The big man reached the other end first and didn’t wait to see what Nathan was going to do. He was pushing in the other direction within moments.

Nathan shouted again as they passed. This time the Ukrainian grunted back. A moment later, their friend was chasing after him again.

“Slacking already?” An unknown voice said from the flank.

Spinning, Kyle and the others saw a square jawed guy with one of those thousand-mile stares.

The man nodded to them, drawing his mouth into a line as he came up to stand with them. He folded his hands behind his back.

Kyle returned the man’s nod.

“Worried about your friend?”

“Yes,” Jess blurted out.

The man observed her momentarily before holding out his hand. “Mitch Travis.”

She shook his hand as he continued. “US Navy SEAL platoon commander, retired.”

After the introduction, the others were more enthused to shake his hand and introduced themselves. Kyle was the last to take it and said, “Honor to meet you.”

The man grinned. “Is it the borderline abuse he’s inflicting on his body or finding out that he’s witnessed everyone he knows die that’s bothering you?”

“Both,” Jess admitted.

His eyes narrowed as he returned to watching the race. “This isn’t his first run in with death. Only about three quarters of the people he mentioned earlier died in this last battle. As tragic as death is, there are soldier, first responders, and paramedics that see as gruesome a scene as you can imagine on the daily. Your friend isn’t shellshocked or panicked. You saw his videos? The one where he killed the thieves?”

“We did,” Justin said, answering for all of them.

“Your friend isn’t a man who’s out of control. He might still be figuring out what to do with us, but he knows exactly what he is doing. Watch.”

Not only had Oleksiy Kulyk made it down and back three times, but he was starting a fourth. By this time, the man really was slowing. Nathan was still right on his tail, goading him.

They both made it to the end of the first leg of his fourth there-and-back, but the Ukrainian stumbled as much as ran to take position on the other side. When the smaller man reached the end, catching up, Kulyk thew himself into the sled with gritted teeth. It moved.

Nathan didn’t surge past him but remained right on his heels. “Breathe,” he screamed. “Qi is all around you. Open that enormous maw of yours and take it!”

The big man sped up one more time, but as he crossed the halfway point, he slumped forward.

“Yes!” Nathan screamed, motioning at a few guys that came running with a recovery pill and the man’s water. “And at only the fifth stage of the body realm.”

Kyle was worried until the Ukrainian rolled out from between the bars of the sled and laid on his back. From across the room, he could even see the massive man’s thighs spasming out of control.

“We’re still adapting,” Mitch Travis said. “But your friend has already learned the hard lessons this new world has awaiting for us. What he’s doing now is called leading from the front. He’s determined to shoulder the hardship for everyone here.

“He knows his mission. It’s when his mission is over that you’ll need to worry about him. By then, I suspect we’ll either have learned the same lessons, be broken, or dead.”

Kulyk sat up after lying there for a few long moments, then took the recovery pill and bottle from one of the guys. Nathan was no longer projecting his voice, but intently instructing the guy. Then something tugged all the loose hair and articles of clothing surrounding the man as if—breakthrough.

Nathan roared in celebration at the guy’s side. The man genuinely smiled when this smaller man moved to help him up. With one of the big guy’s arms over his shoulder, Nathan literally scooped the giant up in a princess carry and walked him over to his sled. He then sat him down on top of the plates at its center. When the guy took the front bars in either hand and lifted up his feet so they didn’t drag, he heard Rich blurt out, “He’s got to weight four hundred pounds.”

Giving the Ukrainian a friendly cuff on the shoulder, Nathan ran around to—

“What is he doing?” Jess asked.

“He’s… moving the other sled so that—” Justin just stopped speaking to let what was happening speak for itself.

Nathan pulled the other sled until it was directly in front of the one Kulyk was sitting on. Then he pushed it until they lined up. The giant man gripped their posts together, then gave him a nod.

As he circled around back, Kyle heard his friend mention, “At the seventh stage, when you reach large success, the jump in power is much larger than during the average breakthrough. Here’s your challenge for when you reach my current level.”

With the Ukrainian sitting on the rear sled and helping to hold them together, Nathan lowered himself to try and move two sleds which equaled two tons and a giant. Not only did the sleds move, but the pace remained slow and controlled. Despite it seeming like he might teeter to a stop at any moment, he didn’t slow until the dual sleds came to a stop at the end of the track.

Suddenly a petite woman with dark hair tied back in a bun sprinted over to Kulyk. She seemed worried, but the large man just picked her up and sat her on his lap.

“That’s his wife,” Jess informed them.

As if it couldn’t get any crazier, Nathan called, “More.”

The men in the area and a few women started to climb onto the sleds to find a place to sit or hold on whether they could. One guy even stopped in the middle of pushing a few lanes away and jumped on Kulyk’s back. Reaching up, the giant messed up the man’s hair like he was his kid brother.

When ten people had somehow balanced on each sled, twenty in total, Nathan called out to them. “Hold on.”

If he hadn’t caused enough spectacles, now he certainly did. Half the auditorium stopped what they were doing and watched.

“How much?” Rich wondered aloud.

“Let’s just call it three tons and then some,” Mitch Travis said, shaking his head.

Then it began to move.

Kyle couldn’t even fathom this kind of strength, and yet here his friend was, doing it barefooted of all things. He could see the guys toes spread out and claw at the ground.

The movement didn’t start fast, but they slowly accelerated. Even then, Nathan’s form remained impeccable.

The people that jumped on didn’t know what they’d signed up for. Once he reached the end, he wasn’t done. He did two there-and-backs, starting a third, when he slumped to the ground still holding the posts. It caused him to superman face-first into the turf. A few deep breaths later, he thanked everyone and was soon gulping down another recovery pill.

Kulyk helped Nathan to his feet.

“I don’t know how your friend knows me,” Mitch Travis said. “But I can tell you this. All of this isn’t for him, it’s for us. If you want to help your friend, get stronger. I think I’m going to go try my hand at this sled.”

The man walked off without another word.

“Should we…” Jess didn’t seem to know how to complete her statement.

“World Strongest Men, pro fighters, world champs, Navy SEAL commanders,” Justin said, sighing to himself. “If we don’t get to work, what help can we be?”

“Hey,” Rich objected. “I’m not getting left behind.”

The two of them left, leaving Kyle and Jess alone. He watched her intently as she reasoned through what they’d just witnessed then glanced up at him. With a shrug, she said, “Let’s get to work.”

He gave her a reassuring grin, then turned back to Nathan. Ever since the world had been turned upside down, he’d been told he would become a blacksmith. It didn’t sound all bad, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He wouldn’t reject the profession outright, for it sounded like something he’d enjoy. Maybe there was something that happened in Nathan’s first life to force his decision, but he wasn’t feeling it. He could ask Nathan about it. He even might make the same decision, but he wouldn’t surrender the chance that he belonged on the battlefield either. There was no forgetting the heat tempering he’d gone through. He’d reached large success as well. It was time to let people know.

“Alright, Nate. Challenge accepted.”

He set off toward the weights. It was time to find out how he compared to his friend.