The training hall was one of the only big places in the entire ship, being three times the normal height and a square of at least 10 meters on each side the cube, as everyone called it.
Mongrel and Seth were in the center of the cube facing each other, practice swords drawn. They moved slowly, closing the gap before engaging their movements, slow and sluggish they where unable to move face, but they needed to move their bodies in order to adapt to the new enhancement.
The single light above them illuminated the entire floor of the cube leaving only the four corners shrouded in darkness.
Seth moved forward with a sabre stance, arm up, outstretched in front of his body with one foot forward and the arm to the side ready to intervene, and as fluidly as he could combined multiple attacks into one followed by the other.
Mongrel on the other hand had a defensive stance, aiming to dodge or parry any attack that Seth would throw his way. Seth's sabre though slow, had little extra movement, making it comparatively fast and accurate. They slugged it out, trading blows with Mongrel on the defense most of the time. It couldn't be helped, Seth was stronger and faster than him, not to mention his preferred weapon was a sword. This left Mongrel at a disadvantage, but he was okay with that, it was supposed to help him move his body, he was not aiming to win. At least that was what he had told himself at the start, but now it is not so much the case.
"One more round" said Mongrel sitting on the ground, sword discarded beside him.
"Fine" said Seth as he helped him up.
They positioned themselves again. This time Mongrel took the opportunity to attack. He used his sword like a long sword to attack Seth with movements that involved his whole body. The sword itself moved slower, but the power behind it was higher. The amount of space Mongrel was now covering was more then Seth's, allowing Mongrel to take more risks with his technique as Seth would have to move into his range before attacking.
"That's not fair Mongrel"
"How is it not fair?"
"Because my body is slow right now, I cannot bolt in"
"Is ya body slow, didn't notice" he said with a laugh
"You menace" said Seth as he parried a wrathful strike with an over the head strike before moving into Mongrel's range. His blade was down, he would need to retreat or reposition himself in order to win.
"I have got you Mongrel" said Seth, readying his body for the final strike
"Sure" replied Mongrel before dropping his sword, and from his side a dagger came, the point was aimed at his throat.
"Damn cheater" grumbled Seth knowing he would not be able to stop it and that Mongrel had won.
"Is it cheating or are ya mutations cheating"
"You win Mongrel"
"This is war. Cheating is allowed"
"Wanna go for a run" said Seth trying to brush past his loss.
"Yea no fun always beating ya"
They both chuckled
"Maybe you can beat me around the cube ten times" said Seth as he laughed.
"Ya on" said Mongrel as he took off immediately
"Always cheating"
"You cheat just by being born like that" replied Mongrel
They waited for any change to take place as they continued training their bodies and swordsmanship for the next 3 days as intensely as the enhancement would allow. They sparred to and frow, gaining ground with a clash of a sword before losing ground with a well timed retreat. During the training they slowly got used to their bodies and pushed them harder and harder before they finally saw a change in Mongrel's body.
"Hmm, I can't feel it in my arms"
"What can't you feel?" asked Seth who was huffing after running so much.
"The metal. I can no longer feel my muscles pushing against the metal in my arms and my legs"
"That's great man, does that mean you can move them faster?"
"Hmm" Mongrel thought for a moment and moved his arm as fast as he could "Still a bit slow"
"How close to your original?"
"Probably about 50%"
"Damn that's great. Didn't take you long"
"Does that mean it is mental or physical?" Mongrel said out loud
"Probably both. If you stopped feeling it and it was purely mental you should be faster than 50% right?"
"Maybe"
"Stop thinking so much. Wanna spar? I wanna see how fast you are with a sword"
Mongrel got into the same stance as before, a deep stance for a long sword. Seth took up a new stance. He held his sword with two hands and mirrored Mongrel as he moved forward swinging his sword. Seth barely blocked the sword that was aimed at his chest. Parring the sword, Seth advanced from that position with a cut of his own. When the cut was being brought down Mongrel stepped to the side, standing more upright and held the point of his training sword to Seth's throat.
"Damn Mongrel, you are way faster. You sure that's only 50%"
"Haha yea I am, ya are just too slow"
"Guess it wont be a challenge for you anymore unless I have a shield"
Saying that Seth went to the side of the cube where all sorts of weapons were and picked up a small buckler.
Again, they traded blows and Mongrel won. After more exchanges the buckler had helped and allowed Seth to block Mongrel's moves, though he was not fast enough to avoid, but he was still too slow for the small defensive area of a buckler.
His body was slow like he was moving though a syrup. Mongrel was also slow, but he was more like moving through water. The difference may seem small but it allowed him to move to different spots before Seth could block them.
Seth returned with a bigger kite shield.
"This should give me a better chance to get you, you speed demon" said Seth with a smile on his face. He did not like losing in anything, but he was happy that Mongrel was starting to move properly again and was beating him.
"Should I slow down for ya?"
"Don't you dare" said Seth with a smile before he lunged at Mongrel.
The kite shield allowed greater protection, even though it was at the cost of some of his vision. Seth was beginning to speed up slowly but surely.
Using his shield to bash at Mongrel anytime he tried to used the shield as a blind stop allowed him to once again fight on equal footing to the faster Mongrel, as he would have to risk losing in order to move into Seth space.
The fight raged on with neither side being able to out maneuver the other. They continued with the intense sword exchange until they where both covered in sweat. Seth lunged with his sword out at Mongrel's side as he moved around to his right. When he thrust out the sword it moved quicker, much quicker, catching Mongrel by surprise and causing him to be hit.
"Sorry man, are you okay?"
"Ya, actually I am fine. It doesn't hurt"
"At least we know the metal works"
"Ya. Did your body get used to it as well?"
"I guess it more felt like the metal was no longer sluggish, but started to move quicker with me" said Seth, the metal becoming one with his body, his movements starting to become fluid once again.
The two continued training, their bodies speeding up as they waited for their bodies to completely adapt to the new enhancement.