"Alright, we're all set." Baal's deep voice announced as Gideon and Victoria stood outside waiting for their departure.
"Okay, we'll meet back here in five days."Draven's usual low voice sounded but he was nowhere to be seen, he had already vanished.
"We'll take our leave then." Sia said with a smile as she was covered in orange light before disappearing.
"Bye."
"Later." Lin and Teran also left leaving the trio alone.
"Well then." Baal said as he suddenly grabbed the two of them by their waists and put them over his shoulders. Even though he did it effortlessly, Gideon and Victoria knew that they wouldn't be able to leave his grip unless he let them.
*FWOOSH*
Their world suddenly became a blur as Baal moved at insane speeds. They were protected by a faint violet barrier. Otherwise they were sure that just the wind would have injured them severely.
A few moments later, Gideon saw that the scenery had changed and instead. of the green blurs, there were now black and dark coloured blurs.
"Here we are." Baal announced and dropped the two of them without a care, but they managed to land on their feet.
Gideon looked around and saw that they were in what looked to be a large field with dark red grass. A few hundred meters away from their position was a magnificent red castle that gave off an imposing vibe.
Gideon saw what looked to be demon servants that walked to and fro throughout the castle and guards protecting the main entrance, their skin color had quite ythe variety. Though the moment they arrived, all the guards and servants looked in their direction and bowed at a ninety degree angle. They did this for five seconds before straightening themselves and going back to whatever they were doing.
"I instructed them to not disturb me unless it's important or I'm the one that called for them." Baal explained and the two of them nodded in understanding.
"Anyway, our training is going to start now." Baal said and the two of them became serious while Baal smiled.
"Put these on." Baal waved his hand and a black one piece suit appeared in front of them. They looked at each other briefly before doing as instructed.
"Now then." The moment they put on the suits, Baal snapped his fingers and the two of them suddenly stumbled as their bodies became incomparably heavy.
"These suits are what we use when training our elite soldiers. They can increase the amount of gravity your bodies feel all the way up to 500x. Currently they're on 50x gravity for you, and 10x for her." Baal explained as the two of them tried to adjust their bodies.
"Oh, and aside from that, you're strength has been cut in half." Baal said casually while their eyes widened in shock. Gideon quickly checked his stats and saw that all his attributes were slashed in half, albeit temporarily.
"What will our training entail?" Gideon asked curiously.
"Well, we're just beginning, so let me give you guys something light." Baal once again waved his hand, and this time, two humanoid dummies wielding weapons appeared in front of the two.
"These training dummies have the same level of strength as you before you put on the suits. This level of training will end when you're able to defeat the dummies." Baal said with a smile,but Gideon and Victoria looked at him as if they were wrong. Something light my *ss.
But they couldn't dwell on it as the dummies suddenly moved. Gideon summoned his daggers while Victoria put on her gauntlets, this time she would fully commit to using her aquafire.
Gideon's dummy wielded a simple sword. Its body blurred and it appeared in front of Gideon instantly.
Gideon activated his poison aura which as he suspected was also weakened. The dummy swung its sword at him and he narrowly ducked his head to avoid the slash. But there was already a knee going towards his face. So without a choice, Gideon crossed his arms while activating poison barrier.
*BANG*
He skidded backwards and felt his arms ache badly. But the dummy had no intention of letting him rest as it charged at him one again.
Victoria wasn't having it any better as she was very quickly forced into a passive position. The dummy which had a pair of daggers was much faster than her and constantly showered her in attacks, leaving her unable to counter attack.
30 minutes passed by quickly but it felt like hell for the two of them. They were both covered in bruises and cuts and we're panting heavily as they strained their bodies to dodge and block attacks.
However, unknown to the both of them. Even though it was slight, they had managed to start reacting their opponent's movements. But it was very meager. Though, Baal had managed to notice.
'Heavens it has only been 30 minutes and they're already showing signs of improvement.' Baal couldn't help but feel surprised.
It was also at this moment that Gideon had gotten fed up with the attacks, so he did something unexpected.
'Lisk, come out.' Just as the dummy took a swing at Gideon once again, a brown tail suddenly appeared out of nowhere and whipped the dummy's chest causing it to fly backwards.
'What's this?' Baal's eyes widened as Lisk's full body finally came into view. It had now reached a staggering 24 meters in length and was as thick as small hallway. The green scales on its body becoming more pronounced while on its forehead, two small bumps could be seen.
HISS
Lisk hissed hatefully at the dummy that had been relentlessly attacking it's master, so it was ready to pounce on it.
"Well you should've told me that you had a tamed beast, and a variant basilisk at that." Baal's voice suddenly sounded and Gideon had a bad feeling.
Out of nowhere, another dummy appeared and tackled Lisk raising a small dust cloud. Lisk managed to shake the dummy off and glared at it.
"In the meantime, we can train it as well." Baal said with an 'amicable' smile. And so, the torturous training of the trio had begun.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gideon and Victoria laid on their backs gasping for breath while Lisk had already returned to the inventory to rest.
"Hmm, that should be enough for today." Baal said after watching them for a while causing them to sigh in relief, they could finally get rid of these stupid-
"Oh, and you guys are gonna keep those suits on unless you need to take a bath or something." Hearing his words, the two of them ft like crying but had no tears to shed.
"Don't worry, the training will only get harder from here." Baal said with an expectant tone and the two of them felt like coughing up blood in anger. This guy is a sadist with a doubt.
"Well, we'll begin our training after you've rested, I look forward to our next session." Baal said before leaving.
Soon, servant demon with yellow skin managed to coax them into standing up and led them into the castle. After passing through its luxurious halls and admiring them antique items that it had, they were led into their rooms.
Compared to the rooms from the wooden house they were in before, these rooms were definitely more fancy and larger.
Despite being in separate rooms, the two of them collapsed onto their king-size beds at the same time and fell asleep almost immediately without caring about their injuries as they would heal later.
And just like that, the training that would determine the fate of their world had started.