CHAPTER 53: TRAINING WITH KI-AN

Fate out of bed as he heard a knock. He was excited, today he was going to start training. For the past month all he had done was eat, party, and sleep, and by party, it was the occasional dinner. V on the other hand was busy, if she was not verbally fighting with Ameita, they were having physical fights. Well, it looked more like Ameita was coaching V.

It was a little fun to see V have a relationship with a demon even if it was just one of them. However, it had left him with nothing to do but watch and he had hated every bit of it but now that he stared at his legs, he knew it had been absolutely necessary.

Another knock. 

"Just a second," he called out.

The door pushed open and Ki-an entered. He paused with his shirt between his hands as he made to slip into the cloth. He glared at her. 

"Do you need help?" She asked as she leaned against the closed door.

Fate trailed his eyes down her body, he felt all his blood rush down and he looked away. "No, thank you."

For the past three weeks, his body has been going through some intense changes, it wasn't just his height increase and weight gain. His increase in height, however, was something the demons would not stop talking about.

They were saying he literally grew overnight which was partially true. He had fallen ill for a period of three days and by the end of it, he had grown almost two feet more.

He was also lanky as hell and had been stuck in bed for another five days. However, his height only complicated his present situation. He was getting constant offers and at this point, he was tempted to indulge them.

"What are we doing together?" He asked as he pulled the clothes down his torso.

The words were barely out of his lips when Ki-an rushed to his side and grabbed his arm. "We are going to build up some muscles." As she spoke a finger trailed his arm.

He pulled his hand away as he stared at Ki-an with a disappointed look. "When am I going to swing swords?"

Ki-an chuckled softly. "You are not swinging swords any time soon. You can't yet but as soon as we build up some muscles, I'll teach you."

"Then what are we going to do if I am not swinging any sword?" Fate asked. Suddenly his face brightened. "Magic?" 

"I can't teach you magic," Ki-an muttered. "If you are going into human territory, the last thing I want to teach you is dark magic. If you use it in the church's jurisdiction, I have no idea what will befall you and dark magic is all I can teach. Besides, I don't know your affinity for dark magic. I could check but that's not a good idea."

"I see, too bad." Fate said and stood to his feet. His hometown was under the church's jurisdiction and so was the surrounding villages, he knew firsthand how terrifying the church could be.

He raised his head and it came dangerously close to Ki-an's face. He immediately took a step back. "Don't be shy," she said and closed the gap again. "I will teach you all you need to know."

Fate could tell she was not talking about swinging swords except the sword she was talking about was attached to two spherical objects. He ducked and escaped through the side of her and got to the door.

"As long as it means I can swing swords at some point."

Ki-an looked at him with bright eyes, "Of course," she cried out and followed him.

She led him outside the mansion. It was still dark outside but in a way he could tell it was morning and not midnight. Ki-an stopped directly in front of the huge house and said, "Start with a jog." 

"Why?"

"To check your stamina and what your body can do."

"Can't you just appraise me?"

"Yeah, if there was anything to appraise. Now, get to work, the faster you start, the faster you can start swinging swords." She said with a grin.

"Fine," Fate muttered and started to jog.

He turned to find Ki-an walking beside him. He increased the pace and she still kept up with him while walking. It wasn't even brisk walking.

"Slow down, Fate. You will get tired before we reach the shore."

"How can you still keep up with me while walking?"

"I am a demon. We are built to be physically stronger."

"Lili said I am not human." He grumbled.

"True, however, unless you train, you are not going to magically get stronger."

"I see," he said and concentrated on jogging. Talking and jogging wasn't a good combo and he found that he was getting tired, the loose foothold also didn't help. Jogging on the sand was hard.

However, he could not embarrass himself for he had quite the audience. Standing in front of their houses were demons. A few of them barely spoke to him, he knew some by name but it was a little hard to keep track of everyone, considering they mostly avoided him and just pointed from afar.

The bold ones, however, took things a little over the edge sometimes as one of them would walk up to him for a conversation and a straight-up offer. Luckily, Ki-an and V were never far away, so he always had the means to escape.

"How much longer do I have to jog?" It was getting harder to breathe and his right side was hurting like crazy.

"Till we get to the shore."

He did not understand the need to have to jog all the way to shore before they began whatever this was about but he was willing to go along with this. As tiring as it was, he was tired of being the one always being rescued.

"Okay," he blurted out and increased his pace.

He got to shore and threw himself on the sand, at this point, the sun was slowly rising. Ki-an had made him take the long way here. He was panting as he tried to catch his breath. His throat was parched.

"Here," she said and handed him a bag of water.

Fate immediately sat upright, pulled it out of her hands, and drank more than half of it, before saying thank you.

"Don't drink too much," she scolded. "It will make you feel a little heavy when you have to jog again."

"I am sorry, what?" Fate asked as his hands froze with the water in midair.

"We just started, don't tell me you thought that short jog was all?"

Fate poured the water over his face, they both had different experiences during the jog, there was no way he would call that short. "I nearly died," he lamented. "If I have to do another, I will this time."

"Don't be so dramatic. You will be fine. A couple more days and that jog will look like nothing."

He knew she was right but he could not help but complain. "It better. I can't feel my legs." 

He closed the bottle and handed it back to her. He pushed himself to his feet as he prepared to jog again. "Where to?" He asked.

"Down this path and back."

"Okay." He mumbled.