Kaelthara wasted no ti. Within hours, she had dragged Lance to a secluded training ground, far from the curious eyes of the other dragons. The area was rugged and unforgiving, with jagged rocks and uneven terrain. From the surroundings alone, Lance could tell that things won't be so easy, not to ntion, kaelthara's imposing presence he was still yet to get used to, even when it appeared that she had done sothing to restrain her strength while around him.
"The first rule of strength," Kaelthara began, her voice much calr now that she spoke telepathically, and yet still fierce, "is to push beyond your limits, that simple. Perhaps, it is the only thing.. Comfort is the enemy of growth." She said.
Lance barely had ti to brace or process what she had just said himself before Kaelthara swiped a massive claw toward him. He yelped, diving to the side just in ti to avoid being flattened, his heart almost climbing out through his mouth.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet against the rough terrain..
"Teaching you," Kaelthara replied, her tone pitiless. "You won't learn anything by standing still. Move, human!"
…
The next hour was a blur of dodging, stumbling, and narrowly avoiding Kaelthara's strikes. Her claw moved with terrifying precision, each swipe designed to, or at least that was what it felt like, to kill Lance and erase him off the face of the earth. At a mont he had even thought of the possibility that she wanted him dead for supposedly courting her daughter, but even he knew that wasn't the case. If she truly wished it, he would be dead and no one would challenge her.
By the ti she finally paused, Lance was drenched in sweat, his breaths coming in ragged gasps with different parts of his body bloodied from his contact with the environnt itself.
"Pathetic," Kaelthara said bluntly, though there was a faint glimr of approval in her eyes. "You still have a long road ahead of you."
The training continued until late into the night. Sohow, Kaelthara had learnt of Lance's awakened magic, which was why she had branded him a perfect strain for her thods.
Her instructions were simple, unless he felt at the verge of death, he was not to use his magic on himself. A simple and straight forward rule that Lance had no issues with, after all, he had followed sothing similar in the past. The only problem now, was how he would know when that verge was at?
…
The following morning, when the sun barely crested the jagged peaks, Kaelthara's booming voice echoed across the training grounds, pricking Lance to the surface of consciousness.
"Up, human! Daylight is wasting!"
In fact, not just Lance, but pretty much, all the dragons and creatures would have been able to hear her.
Lance groaned as he pushed himself off the grass, every muscle in his body protesting after the previous day's brutal training. Now that he had been given strict condition for using his magic, he hadn't used it the day before after using it once during the training. His legs felt like lead, his every muscle burning with the mory of yesterday's training, and his mind was already dreading what fresh hell Kaelthara had planned for him today.
"You know," he muttered to himself as he tightened his boots, "I could have just stayed in the goblin territory, where my mornings were quieter." He said, murmuring to himself, his eyes a bit swollen from the apparent lack of adequate rest.
"I heard that," Kaelthara growled, her massive fra looming over him. Her molten gold eyes glinted with amusent. "If you can complain, you're not tired enough. Let's fix that." She said.
Suddenly, Lance felt the dread of a student, the sa feeling one would get after the class overachiever reminds the teacher of a forgotten assignnt… the only difference was that he alone was the overachiever and the rest of the class.
Just as expected, the first challenge of the day was a seemingly impossible run. Kaelthara had chosen a cliffside path that zigzagged up a towering peak, its steep incline littered with loose rocks and sharp outcroppings.
"From here to the summit and back," Kaelthara instructed, gesturing with a massive claw. "If you're not back before the sun reaches its peak, you'll do it twice."
Lance stared at the cliff, his mouth falling open. "You've got to be kidding , right?"
Kaelthara gave him a flat look. "Do I look like I'm joking?"
With a resigned sigh, Lance prepared himself for the three laps he would do in advance. Just before he left, Kaelthara stopped him and asked him to take off his shoes and shirt. Though Lance protested and begged, there was nothing he could do in the end, and he had to do as he had been told. The thought of all this making him stronger in the end revitalized his mind and body, though, giving him the courage to push forward.
As he began the climb, he quickly understood the the for the rest of his journey. Because of the hard and rough floor, his feet were constantly being pricked by stones and harsh formatioons, which he had to endure throughout. The incline itself was punishing, each step testing the limits of his endurance. While the uneven and extre terrain forced him to be cautious, the urgency of Kaelthara's challenge spurred him forward, he even had to give up climbing when he got to so places, since he had to climb.
So dragons that had caught sight of him could only send their regards from afar, understanding just what he had signed up for themselves.
By the ti he reached the summit, his legs were trembling, and his lungs burned with every breath, as though he had stuffed sulfur up his nostrils. "This… this counts as at the verge of death, right? I can heal myself now." Lance said, his hand beginning to glow faintly. Just then, Kaelthara's voice reached his mind, stopping him before he could even do anything. Apparently, he still wasn't at the verge of death even then.
'This is more than what I did before…' Lance thought to himself, in a rather encouraging manner.
As he turned to make the descent, a small spark of pride ignited in his chest. He was pushing past his limits, more than he even thought possible... though, his mood imdiately went soar… how was he goig to descend now that his legs and arms almost didn't work… and not only that, the sun was soon going to transition to its evening faze, after all, the ti was well past four O'clock.
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