While everyone worked through their meditation, Rhodes sat down and put in a steady stretch of practice himself.
Baron Nashor had once told him that since he couldn't even beat him, what business did he have claiming he had no more room to grow? That had stayed with him. Practice. Always more practice.
Of the people gathered that evening, the three least suited to sitting still were Makarov, Mirajane, and Asuka. Makarov had no need to train. Mirajane shouldn't be pushing herself right now. And Asuka was too young for extended practice to do her any good.
So the three of them played cards.
Asuka didn't fully understand the rules. It didn't matter. By the time everyone else finished their training, her small face was completely clean, while Makarov had strips of paper plastered across his from his hairline down.
As a supplementary penalty, Makarov was conscripted into giant form to carry Asuka home. Alzack and Bisca, seizing the opportunity presented by their daughter's good fortune, helped themselves to spots on his shoulders as well.
Before everyone dispersed, Rhodes called out across the yard. "Be at the guild by seven tomorrow morning. Anyone late swims the lake."
Most of the guild shuddered. A handful of individuals remained conspicuously unmoved.
Rhodes added, "Dragon Slayers who are late ride the roller coaster. Devil Slayers who are late run ten kilometers in a winter coat."
Natsu immediately picked up his pace toward home. Gray's smile disappeared.
The next morning, without exception, everyone arrived on time.
Laxus was also there.
Rhodes looked over at him. "When did you get back?"
"Last night." Laxus held out a form without ceremony.
Rhodes looked at it. "You want to join too?"
Laxus's expression didn't change. "The old man made me sign it."
From just behind his shoulder, Bickslow stuck out his tongue and murmured, "He actually just wants to join the group activity."
A ripple of knowing smiles passed through the crowd.
Laxus shifted uncomfortably under the attention and kept his face neutral. "You talk too much, Bickslow."
Freed, who had long since abandoned the stern inspector's face he had worn the day before, looked at Laxus with undisguised admiration. "What a direct and honest expression. Exactly what I'd expect."
Evergreen pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where exactly is the honesty in that face?"
Lucy leaned slightly toward Evergreen and murmured, "To be fair, the part about Bickslow talking too much was pretty direct."
Rhodes clapped his hands. "Alright. Everyone collect your weights from inside, then head west out of town for a ten-kilometer cross-country run. Breakfast is waiting for you when you get back."
A wave of groaning rolled through the guild. Their bodies moved anyway.
Part of it was that yesterday's training had produced results people could actually feel, which made them more willing to follow the plan than they might otherwise have been. The enthusiasm, while not overwhelming, was measurably higher than the day before.
"Why are these different sizes?" Macao picked up his set of weights and found they were roughly on par with Romeo's, both a step below Natsu's.
Mirajane held up her clipboard. "Everyone's starting point is different, so Rhodes put together individual allocations. You, Romeo, and Wakaba are at the same level as Wendy."
Macao absorbed that quietly. It was genuinely thoughtful.
Then the second half of the sentence landed.
"How am I in the same group as Wakaba? Give me another kilogram."
"What was that?" Wakaba's hearing was, as always, impeccable when it mattered least. He pushed forward immediately, and the two of them began adding weight in competitive increments.
Mirajane watched them for a moment and sighed. "I didn't prepare extras for this, you know."
Macao and Wakaba snorted in unison. "Lucky for you."
Internally, both of them exhaled with relief. They had gotten slightly carried away. Actually adding more might genuinely have killed them. Fortunately, Mirajane hadn't brought any extra stock, so they were saved from their own stubbornness.
Mirajane pointed pleasantly at the corner of the storage room. "If you'd like, there are some barbell plates over there. Help yourselves."
Macao and Wakaba fell silent.
"Actually," Macao said, after a moment, "I'm a little hungry. We should get the run done quickly so we can come back and eat."
"Yeah, yeah, same here!"
The two of them, who had been at each other's throats thirty seconds ago, walked out the door with their arms around each other's shoulders.
Romeo covered his face. "It's always like this."
Mirajane was not suited for high-intensity exercise, so she stayed behind at the guild with Makarov to keep Asuka company.
The three Exceed were banned from flying but given the option to take human form, provided they carried proportional weights in that form. Panther Lily declared himself entirely unintimidated by the prospect and shifted forms on the spot to collect his weights.
Carla said she wanted to stay close to Wendy, so she transformed as well. Happy had no choice in the matter either way, since transforming wasn't something he could do regardless.
Rhodes strapped on his own weights and set off at the front of the group.
For the first stretch, nobody found it particularly daunting. A long-distance run with some added weight was a straightforward enough thing. Uncomfortable, but ordinary.
Then they left the city and entered open, uninhabited land, and things changed.
Rhodes was still running when he threw one hand up and called out, "Heads up, falling rocks from above!"
Everyone looked up instinctively. The sky was completely clear.
Then a pale yellow light shot from Rhodes's outstretched hand, and fist-sized stones began dropping in sequence from thirty meters up, spaced roughly a meter apart, raining down across the entire group.
"This is insane!"
"Hey!"
"What is wrong with you!"
Everyone lurched and scrambled to get clear, their movements nothing like their usual selves. The weights that had seemed manageable at the start were making themselves very known now, cutting into reaction time and killing agility.
Most of them were dodging in a deeply undignified manner.
And that was only the beginning.
The moment they cleared the falling rock zone, Rhodes called out again. "There's a wolf pack in the forest ahead. They may attack at any time. Nobody is allowed to harm the wildlife."
Before he had even finished the sentence, Max saw a wolf launch itself from a tree branch directly at him. He threw himself into a roll to avoid it and immediately knocked Warren off his feet in the process. The two of them tumbled together and nearly got trampled by Nab trying to dodge his own wolf.
"Since when do wolves climb trees?!"
"Those aren't wild animals, those are Rhodes's wolves!"
"Here comes another one! Ah!"
"Bisca failed to dodge. Penalty, fall back one hundred meters and run it again!"
"There's a penalty for getting hit?!"
"Watch this, Fire Dragon's"
Rhodes put Natsu down with a single punch, summoned a Void Crab, and called out, "Natsu committed a foul. Five hundred meter penalty, back to the start."
After that, nobody tried to fight back. Everyone kept their eyes moving and focused entirely on reading the Shadow Wolves and getting out of the way.
They eventually broke out of the forest and were immediately met with Raptors ahead, Wraiths drifting across the path, and Krugs weaving underfoot with the sole apparent purpose of catching ankles.
The complaints were continuous and loud. Rhodes kept running and kept shouting over all of it. "You can't handle a simple obstacle course? The old lady selling ice cream at the guild gate moves with less effort than this!"
Lucy gasped between strides. "Who even is this old lady!"
Amid the regular rhythm of people hitting the ground, Rhodes glanced down with genuine puzzlement and offered Wendy a hand up. "The next Krug is still ten meters away."
Wendy dusted herself off. "Sorry. I stepped on a pebble."