They finished working on arm exercises and began working on leg exercises. If arm exercises meant climbing up a cliff with only her arms, then leg exercises were running with weights heavy enough to slightly dip into the ground. She ran for hours without stopping.
Whenever she tried to stop and take a break, she downed a healing potion and continued to exercise.
When Shuraina seemed close to losing her mind from the never-ending training, Hylli ran with her, teasing her all the way. He ate the royal desserts he had promised to Shuraina in front of her and handed her the trash.
He stared as Shuraina shoved away her exhaustion to chase him at full speed, expletives flowing out her mouth and assured that he would live a long and healthy life. With his consistent carrot and stick approach, Shuraina's strength continued to improve.
As soon as training was over, Shuraina didn't care about getting dirty and flopped onto the floor. She didn't have the strength to speak, so she just huffed for air. Her back went up and down. Hylli smiled bitterly at Shuraina laying face-down on the floor, completely out of it. Then, he flipped her so that she wouldn't inhale any dirt.
"I had no idea that you'd follow so well like this. Good work. Although there's a loooong time before training's over."
"Eugh, ugh.... Ugh....."
"Fine, fine. Here's some meat."
Shuraina laid on the ground, exhausted both mentally and physically, and stared at the meat that Hylli had prepared. She didn't have the strength to even flick a finger. She couldn't even speak properly. So when she poured every single bit of strength left in her body to moan in pain, Hylli seemed to understand and placed a few pieces of meat in her mouth.
"Eat lots and get stronger. You can eat my portion too."
He said as he placed one piece over another and made a tower of meat in Shuraina's mouth. She had so much at once that she couldn't chew anything and just kept it in her mouth. And when a few pieces fell to the ground, Hylli picked up the fallen pieces and tried to put them in Shuraina's mouth, too. Shuraina forced herself to chew and swallow when she saw the dirty meat come closer to her mouth.
"I'm sensitive right now. Don't play around."
Shuraina said, more alive after getting some protein and carbohydrates into her body. She glared at him. Hylli burst into laughter at her reaction and apologized.
She didn't have the power to return Hylli's childish jokes. She threatened to put her smelly socks into his bag before flopping onto the ground like a dying slime. This was one of her precious break times, so she wondered. Should she sleep, or should she eat? She wondered what to do between the two choices. Then, she decided to do both things at once.
She placed a large portion of meat in her mouth and closed her eyes. She chewed her food slowly. Hylli rested his head on his hand and stared quietly, distantly at Shuraina who looked totally drained and exhausted, drenched with sweat.
He unconsciously placed a hand on Shuraina's damp forehead and gently brushed it. He found himself befuddled by his own actions.
He grabbed a cold wet towel and put it on her face and watched her exhausted form before speaking.
"But you're doing a lot better than the first day. You need to be at least this skilled to be considered skilled no matter where you go. I know who you are well so I won't misunderstand, but that might be different in other situations. I want you to be respected no matter where you go. I can't bear to see you being looked down on."
He gently held Shuraina's hand.
"Let's try our best."
Shuraina quietly breathed under the cold towel as she listened to him speak before dragging the towel down her face. She stared at Hylli, who was eating a sandwich without any filling. He had given Shuraina all the meat in the sandwich and was just eating the bread.
Ugh. I can't not try if you say something like that. I just want to rest–why do you have to say this right now? She hadn't anticipated anything as she laid down, but Hylli's words made her tear up a bit so she sat up.
Shuraina put every single health pill that she could into her mouth. She held up a bottle of water, placed the open end in her mouth, and flicked her wrist to create a small whirlwind in the bottle. The water was immediately inhaled into her mouth, and Shuraina immediately stood up.
Hylli burst into loud belly laughter at Shuraina's sudden eagerness to move. He soon sat her back down.
"What are you doing? The moon's high up in the sky. You need proper sleep for your muscles to recover, Lady Shuraina."
Shuraina strode forward without reason and soon walked back. She hadn't noticed because she had been out of it, but it was really night.
"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but rest is important too. Considering resting as part of our training."
Shuraina scowled at Hylli's annoyingly mature, kind words. It was the same feeling as wanting something salty after eating something sweet, and wanting something sour after eating something greasy, and wanting to be mean and petty after hearing something nice.
"What do you mean, train? I wanted to go to the restroom."
You got it all wrong. Hmph. Shuraina complained as she left the area through a magic circle, but she had a soft smile on her lips.
A few weeks had passed after their training began. They had originally only planned on training for a month, but they had multiple breakthroughs which had them training for one, two, and now three months in a row.
It was early in the morning, so the weather was kind of chilly. She could hear the sound of birds chittering in the air. The sunlight hid behind a thin layer of fog, which made the morning look ethereal. Morning dew settled on the tree leaves. The morning dew became a large drop of water, and the leaf soon bent under its weight.
The water drop fell.
Plop.
The drop of water settled right onto Shuraina's forehead, where she was sleeping in a sleeping bag. Shuraina's eyes blinked wide open as soon as the drop landed on her head. Shuraina felt anxious as soon as she woke up.
"3'o clock. 20 degrees."
Her sleep-laden voice rang in the fresh air.
Whoooosh! A weapon sped from the direction she mentioned earlier. She hurriedly grabbed two small daggers. She quickly reflected off the weapons zooming towards her and bent her knees slightly to get ready. She had just woken up, but her poses were accurate and well-placed.
As soon as she moved, the magic threads she had tied pulled and brought forth another blaze of attacks.
"5'o clock. Is it 70 degrees?"
This time, arrows burst through from a high angle. The attack was from almost directly above her.
Shuraina quickly grabbed her sword. She pulled her much stronger aura to her right arm and twirled the sword around like a propeller. The arrows bounced off the sword as soon as they made contact.
"$. 3. 7. 7. 2. 1."
Shuraina closed her eyes and read the attacks. There was going to be a flurry of attacks soon. She briefly sighed deeply and moved in the directions she said out loud. She changed her defense based on where the attacks were taking place. She rolled on the ground a few times and stepped on the trees and avoided the attacks. A few scratches made their way onto Shuraina's body as she blocked the attacks and defended herself, but she ignored it and continued to move. The injuries disappeared soon thanks to her protective gear.
All of the magic threads on Shuraina's body snapped away whenever she moved. She only had a single thread left when only one attack remained. When her body moved to prevent the previous attack from hitting her, she had triggered the final attack.
Clang, clang, clang! The final attack was the most brutal of them all. Arrows, spears, flame magic, and more poured down on her. Shuraina was completely awake as she blocked away the attacks flying her way. She bit her lip and swung her sword hard enough to sound like the air was splitting. She had originally stopped the attacks by messing with the formula in the circle, but she was able to manipulate her aura enough to break the magic using only her sword now.
"The alarm didn't even go off, but why did it activate…..?"
Shuraina tumbled down to the ground as she huffed, preventing the final attack. Then, she soon realized what had happened when she stared at the water droplets coming from the sky.
Seeing how she had woken up from a tiny drop of water, it seemed like she had gotten quite sensitive.
Shuraina's so-called 'alarm' was what she called the attacks from earlier.
Whenever she was done with training for the day, waking up felt like it was an insurmountable task. So she had created an 'alarm clock' to make sure she would wake. When her alarm rang out, all of the magic threads on her body would get cut and all of them would activate attack circles and made it impossible for her to sleep again.
Of course, the attacks were programmed to stop if she was actually in danger of dying, so she was kind of safe.
Sleep was sleep, but Shuraina had made plans to improve her judgment, speed, and reaction times. People were most vulnerable during sleep, and Shuraina wanted to be strong even when she was most vulnerable.
She went to the limits when she started something, so she didn't give herself a moment of rest.
"…..what. I woke up super early."
Shuraina looked despairing as she checked the time. She rubbed her face into her hand and then slumped onto the ground.