Lord of Charm

The next day Gale met again with Lena in the backyard to start his new training regime. To his surprise, he saw Nina waiting with her.

"I won't train you personally today. I also need to train, and I can't spend all my time with you. In the first 3 hours of your regime, you're going to practice dodging Nina's attacks to adjust to your body's new strength, and during the next three hours, you'll practice shooting fireballs while moving. You'll practice dodging again to use this time to replenish your mana, and for the last three hours you'll shoot fireballs at Nina while dodging hers at the same time."

"I also need to train…"

Nina mumbled her misgivings about the arrangement. Why did she have to babysit him? She was already forced to guard him for a few years, but now she was also forced to train him.

"But Lena… doesn't it mean I'll have to move and run for 12 hours?"

Gale had his own misgivings regarding this regime. He wasn't sure he was going to survive it if it was going to be so intensive.

"I know your worries. Although you're awake more than 12 hours you shouldn't overwork your body. You can try meditating and sense the way mana reacts to small requests in order to understand its mechanics better."

"That's not what I meant. I'm also worried about overworking myself!"

Gale joined Nina's murmurs, yet both didn't voice their concerns out loud in front of Lena. Lena heard them loud and clear, but she pretended not to.

"Oh, I will come to check on you from time to time to make sure everything is all right."

She added in a threatening tone and left the place. Gale and Nina quickly discarded their plans to laze around when they get too tired to continue.

"Hmph. You're going to pay for your bragging from yesterday."

Nina said with a menacing smile; she decided that since she must do it, she will make the most of it. She was going to torture this monster as she always dreamt to do to Lena but couldn't. She swore to herself to capitalize on her chance to beat him while she still can, and she would take great pleasure in imagining Lena in his place.

*BOOM*

Gale ducked quickly and jumped to the side.

"Hey! Warn me first before starting!"

"No animal will warn you out in the wild before killing you, I'm giving you the best real-life simulation you could ever get."

Nina had a happy smile seeing Gale's surprised look and kept shooting fireballs at him. She didn't put much power in them, so each hit would only give him a small burn that could be easily healed later with a cheap potion. However, to make him miserable, she increased the velocity of the attacks, shooting the fireballs rapidly.

Gale kept running around the backyard, rolling on the sand and jumping from side to side. He never got proper training before, so all his moves were inexperienced and stiff. His reflexes were pretty bad too.

They kept at it for three hours before it was time to switch, and Nina gave Gale a 15-minute break to catch his breath. Gale was lying on the floor, exhausted, breathing heavily, His clothes were all torn and scorched; he still had his dignity only because Nina wasn't devious enough to aim at the more dangerous parts.

The short break was soon over, and Nina positioned herself 20 meters away from Gale.

"Now start shooting your fireballs and pay attention to my movements when I dodge. Try to imitate my moves so you can use minimal movements to save your stamina in the long run, and not lose your footing and balance in the short run."

Gale took a deep breath and casted fireballs repeatedly just like Nina did to him. However, they were a complete mess and only a few of them were even in the right direction.

"Haha, trying to get back at me? Sadly for you, you still can't use magic so rapidly yet. Don't try to shoot more than one fireball every 3 seconds or you'll be out of mana soon and miss most of your shots anyway."

He grimaced but listened to her. Even if he couldn't return the favor yet, he wanted to do his best to improve. Lena started running away from him and Gale chased, casting a fireball every few seconds.

At first, he was completely off-mark; shooting moving targets was much harder than shooting static ones, and shooting moving targets while moving himself was even harder. As time passed, Nina had to put more active efforts into dodging, lest his spells would hit her.

At the end of the three hours session, he didn't hit her even once, and except for a little sweat, she was completely unharmed.

"Take 15 minutes and we can do the fun part again."

Nina smiled sweetly, and her happiness was almost reflected in her pink eyes. She tied her white hair back in a ponytail and prepared to torment Gale again. As soon as the 15-minute break was over, a fireball was shot toward Gale, however, he was ready this time; he expected Nina to act petty again.

He was already on his feet, and he tried to imitate Nina's graceful moves from earlier and dodge with a minimal shift of his body weight, which rewarded him with a burn to the side of his waist. It didn't discourage him from trying again, he actually felt gratified when it only hit his side and not directly his chest; it meant he was in the right direction. His moves turned more refined the more they practiced, and they quickly started the fourth and last phase of his daily training.

When they finished the day's training regime, Gale was full of bruises, his muscles were sour, his hair was messy, and he was scorched all over. Nina used earth magic to make an improvised stretcher and carried him home.

When they returned, she helped him wash his body of all the mud and dirt and fed him with a recovery potion. An hour later Gale felt like he could move again and started meditating just like Lena's suggestion to improve his mana sense. He went to sleep exhausted, unsure whether he wants to wake up the next day.

This routine continued for 3 days, during which Gale improved his aim, shooting velocity, and movement. He got completely used to his body and Nina trained him seriously on his feet work, to make him more agile and have better chances to defeat a faster beast.

In his spare time, he either read books about the beasts in the nearest forest in preparation for his hunt with Lena or he trained in affecting mana around him mildly and sense the way it moved in response.

"All right, I'm here now. are you all set to go out to the forest?"

Lena came to find him on the fourth day. Her threat was empty and she didn't come to check on them a single time those 3 days, yet the possibility was enough for Nina and Gale to take it as a potential risk that shouldn't be taken.

"I'm all set."

He took a bag with some cookware, spices, and a book with information about the forest. He believed that if he needed something else Lena would be there to support him with her magic.