A Barbarian helps polish up the black pearl!

[MappleMan7]

"Thirty-seven... thirty-eight... thirty-nine... forty!"

Oscar Orelash, LAW's resident Barbarin Prince, quietly counted to himself as he did some squats with a dumbbell plugged up with weights on his shoulders. Oscar couldn't deny the facts- things weren't looking the best for him at the moment. Despite having secured himself a spot in LAW's intergender tournament, Oscar take been taking quite a few hard losses since the good news hit him- especially his botched rematch against Drake Benton. Oscar may not have any real experience with business politics, but he had been a fan of wrestling long enough to know that it didn't matter if he lost because of outside interference. A loss was a loss- and there was a good chance that it could come back and bite him if he didn't shape up enough. That was why Oscar had written up a stricter gym routine for himself. If he wanted to keep his foot in the door and prove that he was still an eligible contender- then by god he was going to push himself to the limit!

Oscar had started as early as seven in the morning, running all manner of drills on himself to ensure his body would be in peak condition. Of course, many breaks were taken in between to prevent pushing himself too far. It was actually time for another one of those breaks as Oscar let out a satisfied sigh, stretching his arms out before wiping the weights down and putting everything away before plopping his butt on a rest bench and gulping down some water before wiping some sweat from his forehead with a sweat rag. During his break, Oscar did what he usually does while he cooled off and had a peaceful watch around the gym- seeing what type of people were in the area and what they were doing.

Spoiler

(This but in a tank top and gym shorts)

[Bearhug Goddess]

Ambre gradually began to make herself known in LAW after fighting some top carders but especially after fighting Astrid Ostberg. The nickname Black Pearl was becoming more and more well known and some people were finally starting to take her seriously, especially after she showed what she was capable of. She may still be a new wrestler but she aspired to become the best heavyweight wrestler and this ambition was not to be taken lightly. The Frenchwoman may have been new, but she was able to show rather impressive skills and performances against the former champion, adaptation, resistance, will and above all brute force!

Although she was small, measuring barely 174 centimeters, Ambre had shown on numerous occasions that she was one of, if not the heavyweight wrestler, the strongest physically. She was muscular, extremely muscular and in all places. Legs, arms, shoulders, back, abs... Nothing escaped the Black Pearl's intensive training that she had been taking for a little over five years now.

And even though she had lost her match against Astrid, she did not relax her efforts and even less her training. She had to continue to be stronger, more resistant and more enduring if she wanted to win her next matches and for this, Ambre went to the LAW gym every morning at least 5 times a week to train. It was like a second home for her, it was a quiet place where she stayed serious and focused on her goal, to become stronger.

She grabbed a bench press bar, attaching several weights to both sides before starting her set of 10 unassisted. It wasn't impressive at first until some people noticed that the Frenchwoman had just lifted 335lbs without assistance and without much difficulty. Her pose only lasted about fifteen seconds before she resumed a second series.

Ambre

[MappleMan7]

Oscar's water break was soon over as he refreshed himself with some stretches before returning to the weights. On his way over, a long streak of amber/ golden hair caught his eyes as due to the busy nature of the Gym, Oscar had to set up next to the familiar woman. It didn't take him long to recognize her though when he got a better look at her face- the famous Black Pearl herself, Ambre Brault. The inner wrestling fan within Oscar wanted to say something- to introduce himself, but the other part of him thought it'd be wise not to disturb her while lifting so much.

Speaking of lifting, Oscar would set his own weights up- clocking in at exactly 350 pounds before he picked up the weights without and assistance, just like Ambre, as he begun a series of bicep curls.

[Bearhug Goddess]

Ambre finished her second set of bench presses and took the opportunity to look at the people around her while she wiped the sweat from her forehead with her towel. She didn't notice anything interesting except a man who was doing the same exercise as her but with more weight! This left the French woman speechless as she did not expect to see a person lifting so much weight without assistance...

335lbs was a little too light for the French girl but as she was not very confident, she was afraid of increasing the weight and injuring herself by exercising alone... But thanks to her last meetings, the Black Pearl learned to believe in her, at least to begin to believe in herself, and seeing the young man with green eyes capable of such a feat alone, she began to question herself, wondering if it was not also possible for her to go a a little higher...

“Mhhh!..”

She stood up from her bench, grabbing two more 25lb weights to add to her bar for a total of 385lbs now! She lay down again and sighed long before grabbing her bar and resuming her exercise with a little difficulty but not to the point of being in danger, even if she was alone. Her training improved slightly, it was not yet the maximum she could lift but we were getting closer little by little thanks to this third series.

[MappleMan7]

As Oscar continued his bicep curls, his eyes met with Ambre's for a moment before quickly breaking away. Whoops! He hope he didn't seem weird for doing that. While Oscar was busy wondering if he came off as a creep, Ambre walked by and grabbed some extra weights for her set... which Oscar couldn't help but notice put Ambre's weight total higher than his. That... couldn't gave been a coincidence, could it? Come to think of it- was it Oscar who looked over at her? Or was it Ambre? Wait- was this some sort of challenge in weight lifting Ambre was issuing?

With questions swimming in Oscar’s head, the young man would put his theory to the test as he set his bar of weights down. If Ambre was paying attention, the black pearl might notice that Oscar grabbed MORE weights and placing them onto his dumbell for a total of 395lbs! Purposely more than what Ambre was currently benching as Oscar's Bice curls return- giving the woman a glance to see what sort of reaction she was going to have.

[Bearhug Goddess]

The Black Pearl resumed her series as if nothing had happened, her training had just improved even if the difficulty was still a little far from the French's limits... It was even still a little too easy! But she still had to thank this man for pushing her to improve her training! She put the bar down and stood up with a small satisfied smile, wiping her face once again with her towel and this time noticing that the person she had been looking at a few seconds ago had just added new weight to her bar. .. 330... 350.. 380... Almost 400lbs!

It was surprising, was this an invitation for a challenge?... Ambre loved challenges and smiled confidently when she saw this! She quickly got up to grab new weights and hastened to add them to her bar. Unlike Oscar, the Frenchwoman did not hesitate for a single second to exceed the symbolic bar of 400lbs, even taking it upon herself to add a little weight to have a total of 415lbs! She turned towards the green-eyed man, even waiting for him to look at the French woman before smiling proudly in her face.

She lay back on her bench right after acting like a child, grabbing her bar tightly and starting a new set. This time, she was a little slower than the previous times but she didn't really seem to have any great difficulty... And that was reassuring! The Black Pearl knew her limits in terms of weight, she had never managed to do an entire series carrying 500lbs even with assistance. Exceeding 400lbs would now greatly improve her training alone !

[MappleMan7]

A smile. A pretty happy looking smile at that. That... wasn't what Oscar expected. Perhaps that was a good thing though. Perhaps Ambre was trying to make a game out of the weight lifting instead of issuing a challenge... and if that was the case, Oscar expressed his agreement to this game by smiling back at Ambre and setting the weights down- adding MORE to his set once more. With a total of 425lbs on his set, Oscar went to lift the dumbbell again- this time having some difficulty doing so. The weight was manageable but Oscar's pace had slowed down significantly as a means to be careful on his muscles. Oscar looked over at Ambre and let out a strained chuckle toward Ambre- seeing if she was going to keep stepping it up!

[Bearhug Goddess]

Ambre finished her series without too much problem, slowly putting down her bar before standing up and seeing the reaction of the person she was facing in the middle of a weight challenge... And surprisingly, he seemed to take it well! The man with green eyes was just waiting for the French woman to look at him to add even more weight and resume his training as if nothing had happened, while being more careful.

This made the Black Pearl smile, who didn't expect to have competition in this kind of place and especially in the thing she excelled at! This kind of competition was like a test of strength in the middle of a match, she was sure to win but it was always fun to test her limits and those of her opponent. She got up with a big smile on her lips, replacing some of her weights with bigger ones... Increasing the weight to 460lbs before looking towards Oscar with an amused smile

"Hey... Do you think we'll take turns lifting this bar?"

We were reaching the limit of what the French woman could lift with assistance but this time she decided to break the ice by inviting Oscar to join her to train together and above all to see which of the two would end up exhausted first.

[MappleMan7]

Oscar's eyes widened as he watched Ambre slap even MORE weights on her set! At this point there probably weren't any weights left to add to his side considering how many he and Ambre had claimed for the improvised competition- but it seemed that wasn't going to be an issue. Oscar was pleasantly surprised to see Ambre offer to share the dumbbell she was using to continue their contest. An offer he accepted by slowly placing his own dumbbell down and shaking his hands out with a big sigh.

"Oh- sure! Nice of you to share. I can keep count to see how many reps you can do while you focus on the lifting. I'll spot if things get too difficult"

Oscar nodded his head and quickly wipe down his equipment and put the weights he took back before going over to Ambre, taking up position over the Black Pearl as she lay down on the bench. Cupping the underside of the bar, Oscar was ready to spot for Ambre and gave her a nod- signaling her to go ahead.

"So... how many reps do you think you're going to get with this much?"

[Bearhug Goddess]

Ambre smiled when she saw that her invitation had just been accepted and lay down once again on her bench, firmly grabbing the bar with her hands. The challenge was simple, lift the 460lb bar as much as possible and in a single repetition. It wasn't going to be easy but the Frenchwoman was confident in herself, she just had to be strong as usual. But before starting her series, she thought about an answer to the question she had just been asked.

"That would be great, thank you ! How many reps ?... Hmmm... I hope more than twenty!"

She laughed lightly before catching her breath to fill her lungs with air, finally lifting the heavy bar and beginning her repetitions. She was still a little slower but her repetitions remained rather fluid and fast until the twelfth rep. From that moment on, the Frenchwoman began to slow down with each new repetition. The more seconds passed, the more she could feel her arms and her breath burning, her drops of sweat becoming more numerous and larger. Finally, the Frenchwoman began to grit her teeth after the 29th repetition, slowly lowering the bar with the help of Oscar then standing up with a long sigh.

“Ahhhhh…”

Ambre immediately grabbed her towel and wiped her face, chest and arms which were full of perspiration. She stood up from the bench, grabbing her water bottle to drink before looking at Oscar with a small smile.

"So.. How many ?"