My Hockey Alpha Chapter 268: The Drill Sergeant
Nina
That day, Enzo was clearly agitated after the training session. I couldn’t quite
tell if it was because I reprimanded him, because he felt guilty for going too
hard on the new recruits, or maybe if it was a mixture of both.
However, over the next couple of days the training sessions hardly improved in
intensity. It really was beginning to feel as though Enzo was trying to weed out
any weak recruits, but I felt as though he was just going too hard for anyone
to be able to keep up. Even though the new recruits were all werewolves now with their own healing abilities and newfound physical abilities, he wasn’t giving
them time to adjust.
On the third day of training, it was an especially cold winter morning. It had
even snowed a bit the night before, and the athletic field was covered in a fine
layer of white powder. I had spent the previous night alone in my dorm as I
needed to study for our upcoming final exams, and so shortly after sunrise I
woke up and quickly got dressed to meet Enzo outside.
By the time I arrived, Enzo was already beginning to have the new recruits
warm up on the athletic field despite the frigid weather. I was bundled up in my
winter coat and warm clothing, but the new recruits were in their athletic gear.
Even though werewolves were less susceptible to cold weather, it was still
quite cold and especially windy on the open athletic field, and I was surprised
that Enzo wasn’t at least allowing them to warm up inside in the gymnasium.
As I approached, I saw that Enzo had set up orange cones all around the
athletic fields. At the moment they were just warming up and doing some
calisthenics, but even then he was still drilling them and pushing them to go
harder.
“Come on, hustle!” he yelled, waving his stopwatch in the air. “I wanna see
some improvement in your times! It shouldn’t be taking you thirty full seconds
to do twenty push ups!”
“But the ground is cold and it makes my fingers hurt!” one girl replied.
“You’ll be fine,” Enzo snarled. “You’re a werewolf. It’ll have to be a lot colder
than this for you to be affected by the cold!”
I walked up to Enzo and stopped alongside him. A shiver ran down my spine
as a particularly cold wind blew across the athletic field, causing my hair to
whip in my face and some of the recruits to groan.
“Isn’t it a little cold?” I asked, feeling myself stiffen against the wind. “Maybe
you should at least let them warm up inside.”
Enzo grimly shook his head, never tearing his eyes away from the recruits as
they struggled through their calisthenics circuits. “The Crescents won’t be
giving us the luxury of staying inside when it’s cold,” he replied. “They need to
get used to the physical demands of fighting in all kinds of weather.”
I couldn’t help but frown at Enzo’s words. Yes, he was telling the truth, but it
still felt too soon to be drilling the recruits like this. However, despite the
dipping morale no one was giving up just yet, so I decided to just do my job as
the team doctor and pay attention for any injuries.
As the morning went on, Enzo pushed the recruits through hours of more
intense training. They did sprints, agility tests around the cones that Enzo had
set up, practiced combat training, and even played a game of touch football to
work on their strength and cardio. If I had thought that Enzo was a tough
coach before when he coached the hockey team, he was even tougher now.
At one point, Matt and the others came to see what was going on. Matt stood
beside me with his hands in his pockets, watching with me while Enzo coached
the recruits on their sprints.
“Was he always like this when he coached you guys on the hockey team?” I
asked, turning to look up at Matt.
Matt chuckled wryly and nodded. “Yeah, actually,” he said. “Maybe not quite
this bad. But when we first started out, none of us were very good, and we
had some people on our team who weren’t very serious about it. For the first
few months, Enzo drilled us like hell. I remember going home and being so
sore I could hardly move. It was worth it, though.”
I nodded slowly and looked back over at Enzo. Maybe to him, the new recruits
were like the new hockey team to him, and he needed to whip them into
shape. I supposed that I should trust him, seeing as how his training methods
had resulted in one of the best hockey teams in this part of the country, but it
was still hard to watch.
However, as the training session went on, I couldn’t help but get even more
worried about the new recruits. They were noticeably fatigued by then, and it
just didn’t feel right to stand by idly and watch. When Enzo started to berate
one of the male recruits for tripping and falling, I finally had had enough.
“Everyone, take fifteen and have a break,” I said, walking up to Enzo. Enzo
whipped around to give me a surprised look, but said nothing. I could tell just
from the look on his face that he knew what I was about to say.
While the recruits sat down and drank their water thirstily, panting and
moaning, I stopped in front of Enzo with my hands on my hips. “You’re going
too hard again.”
Enzo chuckled slightly. “If you think this is bad, then you should have been
there for the mandatory training sessions that all werewolves have to go
through during adolescence,” he replied, folding his arms across his chest.
“This is nothing compared to that.”
“So?” I asked, splaying my hands out to my sides. “Just because you had to
train harder than this doesn’t mean that it’s fair to punish everyone. They
voluntarily signed up to be here and you’re punishing them for it.”
“You’re not even taking part in the training,” Enzo scoffed. “So I don’t really
wanna hear n It.”
My eyes widened at Enzo’s words. “What is your problem?” I growled.
Enzo fell silent for several seconds. His eyes seemed to flash with a million
different emotions as he ground his teeth together before he finally answered.
“My problem is that, once again, we’re dealing with the consequences of one
of your poorly thought-out plans.”
W-What is that supposed to mean?” I whispered, feeling hot tears beginning
to prick at the backs of my eyes.
Enzo shrugged. “First, you ran off the other day with some grand plan to take
on the rogue leader on your own. Then, you practically bullied me into going
through with this plan to turn dozens of people into werewolves, and you’re not
even a little concerned that some of them could use their new powers for evil!”
My eyes widened even further. I felt tears pooling up in them as I stared
angrily up at Enzo, obstructing my view of him. I opened my mouth to respond,
but before I could, one of the new recruits suddenly spoke up.
“We’re not planning on using any of our new powers for evil,” she said, her
voice shaking slightly. “None of us would ever want to do anything bad to our
campus. We’re just trying to protect the town that we love. Right, guys?”
The other recruits murmured in agreement. I quickly looked down and wiped
my tears away with the back of my hand.
But when I looked back up, Enzo was gone.
