Stress Test - Ellie's Academy (Part 3) (Patreon)

Like the last part of the update, this is more of a story segment that I haven't fully stitched into the main plot yet. Still, I'd promised something for this month and don't like to disappoint!

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Zoe gave the girl less than thirty seconds of reprieve - that word being generous - Ellie couldn't stretch or move to soothe her muscles as she lay bound to the infernal device, she could only take time to mentally prepare herself for whatever was coming next. Her breaths were shallow and quick, with unbidden, desperate moans. With every exhale her twelve pack abs punched the air, with sweat trickling between the carved up muscles. It flowed over the completely saturated leotard and dripped into the growing puddle beneath her. Her flushed chest too, flexed with each breath. The perspiration shimmered and highlighted the separate sinews of the defined pecs that pushed up her breasts. Her arms and legs were being bitten into by the harness, bulging against it and flushed so red it was hard to make out her freckles. The cruel trainer, a practiced expert in breaking down gymnasts, sneered as she reached for the topmost weight plate pulling Ellie down, and lifted it off the machine to lighten the load by a fraction. She then leaned so close to Ellie that she could feel her breath on her cheek. "Up."

"Hnngh!!" Ellie heaved a split second later, scrunching up her face and gritting her teeth. Her body was vibrating like an overburdened bridge cable that was about to snap. For a few moments she made no progress in her rep, and then Ellie started to scream. Her body curled by the inch. The metal beneath her rattled with her violent tremors. The gymnast was clearly lifting her absolute maximum, even as the strain barely let her draw breath. She squinted and saw her thighs rising to meet her, the agony and relief almost euphoric as she reached the top of the rep and made it especially deep. Then Zoe spoke, and her heart sank.

"Hold!"

Ellie's body turned to marble on command, and she winced as she felt her abs grind together over her leotard. The durable material had worn thin, and was wet enough to show hints of the flushed red skin beneath. It sucked in over the separate sinews of each blocky muscle, every one of them under peak load and every one of them sending signals to her brain screaming for rest. But there was no rest. Ellie knew that Zoe wasn't planning to tell her to stop. She hissed through her gritted teeth, shook her head in a wake of sweat droplets and held. With every moment stretching into infinity, she would never know how long she lasted before she started to cry. Sharp sobs soon became full on wailing as the sensation overwhelmed her and tears spilled down her cheeks. The weight inevitably began to tear her hold apart, but even then Ellie worked through the tears to keep the movement to a crawl. The machine too, cried out as though it was barely able to contain the girl strapped to it. It creaked and groaned despite each well crafted joint being brand new.

Once she was almost pulled down fully, Zoe leaned over her, a blur through the tears. But Ellie heard her clearly - "My my... will I get to be ze one who broke ze great Ellie Watson?"

Clank. The weights settled back into place gently, and Ellie was trapped again. Her devastated stomach rolled in waves as she continued to sob. For the second time, Zoe took the weight at the top of the stack away from the machine.

"Again."

Drop sets. As cruel and painful as they are effective. If Zoe had wanted a shallow win, she could have loaded up Ellie with more weight than a human could possibly handle and watch her squirm under it until she tired out. That was easy, and pointless. Drop sets - removing weight in small increments at the point of muscle failure - allowed the gymnast's body to keep moving, keep working. It kept her muscles at their limit for as long as she had the willpower to push them. Ellie crunched her abs again. She shook her head, "Ff-ahh... hah... hnnnngh!!" her crying turned into a deep, long, shaky groan. The sweat soaked leotard squelched as her abs wrung them out. Her mighty, v-shaped back rose again, lats spread like wings. Her legs rose to meet her, rippling, chorded hip flexors joining into her pumped quads. The leotard looked ever smaller and more revealing as every swollen muscle threatened to burst out through it. Again, Zoe made her hold at the top until gravity and exhaustion wrenched her body apart. Each brick of muscle thrummed with breaking muscle fibres as she still poured her every drop of effort into them. It was torment beyond reason. This was a kind of muscle failure that an athlete could only manage to reach through masterful control of their own body.

The two continued in kind, and it was paradoxically far more brutal than when the trainer was simply adding extra weight. This time, Ellie was being held at a ruthless, constant breaking point. It happened repeatedly, it became almost mindless as Ellie could only moan and groan and flex. After a mind-breaking eternity, Ellie twisted her head slowly to the side and blinked away the sweat and tears. She took as deep a breath as she could manage to push back the blackness encroaching on her vision, and could make out that the rack beside her was now empty.