Chapter 137 - 54. Combat Training

Chapter 137: 54. Combat TrainingThe sun of Saint Nali in the summer could be succinctly described with the words "blistering" and "harsh."

On usual days, if it rained, countless clouds would float in the sky, shielding people living below from the scorching sunlight. However, unfortunately, on the day Mr. Fisher began his training, such treatment wasn’t available, and thus the unobstructed sunlight stabbed directly at his already heavy-feeling skin.

Under the sun, drops of sweat twisted down along the contours of his muscles. He frowned slightly in discomfort, gripping very tightly onto the hemp rope in his hands knotted to various items that looked heavy in the stable before, such as a millstone and a wooden trough.

Mr. Fisher was pulling these objects around in the yard, his body illuminated by activated demon magic, making his body groan in protest.

But Elliog, lying on the stable roof, didn’t show an ounce of sympathy. He even looked somewhat unsatisfied with Mr. Fisher’s condition,

"The pace needs to increase, otherwise, the deceleration effect of the magic becomes useless, right?"

Mr. Fisher kept silent, mustering all his strength to drag the heavy items behind him forward. His robust muscles outlined with effort as he maintained the pace for several more rounds before finally throwing the hemp rope to the ground and gasping as he rubbed his shoulders.

Sweat dripped down, making Fisher feel extremely hot and irritated, a suffocating, unpleasant heaviness welled up in his chest, making him feel intensely warm.

Elliog stroked his chin, surveying Fisher, clearly noticing his condition but didn’t speak first. Instead, he touched his chin and pointed outside,

"It’s about time you moved over there a bit, you must be feeling quite sore now, next you’ll need to completely exhaust your strength. The first training session is slightly more intense mainly because your body has been dormant for too long, it needs some vigorous awakening. Afterwards, we can decrease the intensity a bit, combined with my magic, it seems to work quite well."

"Can I run?"

Fisher lifted his arm, stretching his fingers, which were trembling slightly, surging with an intense sour feeling. Although his body felt uncomfortable, his strength wasn’t drained yet. He thought for a moment, and running seemed to be the best way to exhaust his strength.

"Yes, go ahead, come back when you can no longer run."

Elliog nodded indifferently, laid down, and didn’t want to move again. The human-intolerable sunlight seemed just right for her, though it was a bit too glaring, so she used her tail as an eye mask to cover her eyes, then comfortably lay down and started to sleep.

Fisher glanced at her, pushed open the door, took a deep breath facing the outside fields, and then sprinted out rapidly. With each breath, even though he was under the burden of demon magic, his speed was incredibly fast. He went barefoot, afraid of ruining his few pairs of leather shoes, now wearing only a pair of black suit pants.

As Fisher adjusted his breathing while sprinting, beads of sweat on his body slid down rapidly, falling onto the ground of the countryside, accidentally flipping over a beetle crawling by.

His route was roughly around his laboratory, veering slightly toward Saint Nali University to avoid running in the direction of the Imperial Mausoleum and getting caught as a criminal.

He was very fast, and soon in his sight appeared the white building of the "Southern Continent Subhuman Protection Association." Glancing toward the building, he saw the Centaur Xiayat in a skirt outside, holding a watering can and watering her plants.

Thus, Fisher paused his running and walked to the outside of the wall.

"Ah, Mr. Fisher, oh... what are you doing, why aren’t you wearing a shirt?"

Xiayat instinctively greeted him but saw the tense muscles on Fisher, hanging with sweat. She blushed slightly, using the watering can to block her view, yet she peeked from behind it at the Fisher in front of her.

"I’m exercising... I’ve come here twice before, and you weren’t here. Did you go out due to the New Party’s activities?"

"Yes, the midterm election is about to happen, and I heard they are busy with other matters, like another nation of your humans coming to visit. They can’t preach during their visit, so the campaign activities have been arranged frequently these days."

Xiayat set down the watering can, explaining to Fisher,

"When the visit is over, it will be time to vote, recently I’ve been accompanying them to other cities, and I just got back today."

"I see, it’s good you’re okay, I’ll come again later."

Fisher nodded, but that made Xiayat shyly glance at him before suddenly suggesting as she looked out at the fields,

"Hey, why don’t you wait for me... I haven’t run for a long time, since you’re exercising, let me join you."

"You? If you run too fast, I might not be able to keep up."

Fisher glanced at her four legs and then at his own two, thinking that just by the number of legs, he wouldn’t be a match for the Centaur girl in front of him, right?

But she had already put down the watering can and turned to head back into her house, looking back at Fisher with a smile,

"Don’t worry, I’ll keep the same pace as you, just wait for a moment, I’ll change my clothes."

Fisher also nodded, waiting outside for a while, until Xiayat came out from inside.

Her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail, a hairstyle that, from a human perspective, appeared a bit odd, probably a style Fisher hadn’t seen in the Western Continent before. Her skirt was replaced with a simpler and more rustic attire, looking like something from her tribal outfit.

The highlight of this outfit was the part covering her equine half, which, though lacking the intricate beauty of Nali style, was very suited to her non-human part, the light fabric clinging to her frame, covering certain parts while not hindering her running movement, evidently specifically designed for a naturally running-loving Centaur.

"Let’s go."

She easily leaped out from behind the wall to Fisher’s side, raising her hooves slightly, seemingly preparing for a run.

Mr. Fisher nodded his head, adjusted his breathing, and then suddenly asked as if he remembered something,

"Do you mind going out with me?"

"Do I mind? They only care about me when they need me anyway."

Xiayat casually twisted her body and then focused on what was ahead. After receiving her answer, Mr. Fisher ceased to care and ran out alongside her from beside the white house.

In comparison to a Centaur, the running speed of a human was indeed nothing remarkable. Although Mr. Fisher was under the influence of Demon magic that increased his load, the pace was still just a jog for Xiayat. As she slightly increased her speed later on, Mr. Fisher found it very difficult to keep up.

She elegantly placed her hands by her sides, and the upper half of her human body also leaned forward slightly, apparently to better comply with their running rhythm.

After running several more rounds with her, when Mr. Fisher was utterly exhausted, he leaned against a tree shade to rest for a while.

"Mr. Fisher, I’ve been wanting to ask you since earlier, what is that bright light on you?"

"It’s magic used for load training."

Watching Mr. Fisher leaning against the tree shade covered in sweat, Xiayat jumped into the house and brought out a towel for him, saying it was a gift from the New Party and that she hadn’t used any, so she gave it to Mr. Fisher.

After thanking her, Mr. Fisher wiped the sweat off his body with the towel and explained to her that he was training using load magic.

After hearing this, she covered her mouth in surprise and said,

"Wow, if Mr. Fisher can run this fast with a load, wouldn’t you be even faster without it? Are you really human and not some disguised species of Dragon-man?"

Hmm, it seemed that in the Southern Continent, it was widely known that Dragon-men had superior physical abilities.

Mr. Fisher chuckled and shook his head, wrapping the towel around his body and stood,

"Alright, I think I’ve trained enough for today. I need to go clean myself up. Next time we train together, if you have time."

Xiayat nodded her head in agreement with a smile,

"After the midterm elections, I’ll be free, and you can come over anytime."

Holding the towel Xiayat gave him, Mr. Fisher slowly made his way back to his laboratory. By now, he had used up all his strength and his whole body ached intensely.

Mr. Fisher reached out and extinguished the Emblem glowing on his body, and instantly, a pleasant sense of relief spread across him. He breathed out contentedly and quickly returned to his lab, where Elliog was still sleeping in the stable, her tail still flickering with flames.

As Mr. Fisher walked in, she craned her head and looked at him entering from the main entrance.

"Oh, you’re back?"

Mr. Fisher nodded and glanced at the stream outside the stable without looking at her, simply draping the towel over his shoulders and saying,

"I’m going to wash myself up in the stream outside; you should do the same. My room is full of that saltpeter smell; it’s suffocating."

"Hey, that’s just the normal smell of a demon, you know. Though I’m lazy, I do care about personal cleanliness. I have three lava flows and a hot spring back in the Dynasty, and I love taking baths!"

"Yeah, so you better come wash up quick."

Elliog rose somewhat irritably, watching him undress and enter the stream to wash his body. She jumped down from the top of the stable and ran to the stream, dipping her tail into the water, the flames wobbling but not extinguishing at all.

Feeling Elliog’s proximity, Mr. Fisher wasn’t shy but sat in the water, washing his body and paying no heed to the demon.

This caused the demon behind him to lick her lips, her gaze unabashedly resting on his body.

There was silence for a while; when he turned back, Elliog had already run off a good distance and began to wash herself.

This time, the washing took much longer. When Mr. Fisher changed his clothing and returned to his lab, he was momentarily startled by the scene inside.

Elliog had her back to Mr. Fisher, seemingly tying up her chest wrap. Noticing Mr. Fisher’s return, she wasn’t annoyed but suddenly remembered something and reminded,

"Right, I told you before, you’d better release some of your stock soon, or the effect of such training will keep diminishing..."

She turned her head to look at Mr. Fisher, but suddenly caught a glimpse of his eyes darkening significantly due to her current appearance.

In an instant, her smile also turned exceedingly vile, knowing from a glance at his body that the gentleman’s patience had reached its limit.

She was just about to draw a heart with her tail to stir Mr. Fisher’s desire when she saw him approach her closer and closer, suddenly grabbing the tail she draped behind and then pouncing forward.

"Hey, wait... you jerk..."

He indeed needed to release some of his stock.