Marcus jumped as if shocked and immediately placed the rifle back down in the rack. He had misunderstood that they were to run with the heavy weapons strapped to their backs. Still he would not complain about a lighter load.

Determined not to make an ass of himself further on in class he grimly got ready for the practice obstacle course and waited for his turn. He nodded once to the other trainee next to him, then concentrated on the course ahead. While he had absolutely no problems with jumping over the small log wall or pulling himself up, actually throwing himself over the iron pole proved troublesome. After a good dozen seconds he finally managed it and hurried onwards. The other obstacles proved much simpler. He had the muscles hardened by years of smithing to simply brute force his way past the lot of them. Admittedly he had all the elegance of a beached whale, but flexibility had never been his strong point anyway.

He panted as he staggered away from the rope, hands practically on fire after sliding down as fast as he could. Probably on the good side of three and a half minutes. Decidedly no more than four. Marcus could not help but grin. To push himself to the absolute limit and come out the better for it was exactly why he came to Beacon.