I had gotten to know this Beastkin woman during the afternoon. Her name was Reeta Da’ashal, and she had a tendency to boast about how much she fought in the Final War. Although… It felt strange to hear how she beat up knights in golden armor, and that it was just a matter of time before she landed her fist in the middle of the Hero of the Holy Gods’ face… which… she already did.

However, that was something that she didn’t know and that I’ll keep to myself.

She had skipped the same ‘greeting’ that she had with me for Victoria, as after giving her a quick glance, she decided that the girl didn’t have what it took to fight, so she wasn’t going to bother with even testing her.

Thankfully, Reeta didn’t give up on her, simply claiming that she just had to awaken the beast inside Victoria.

As for Steven, it seemed like she wasn’t paying him any more attention, which curiously hurt the man in an unexpected way, as he appeared to be looking forward to training with Reeta.

For me, she had asked me to simply get used to the contraptions in the room, since according to her, I already had everything needed to be an S rank warrior, so I only needed to strengthen myself until the body was up to the standard of the talent.

Because of that, I was currently running on top of a moving platform. It was quite the clever contraption, as the material under my feet would go around the floor to make it as if one was running without moving from the spot. But there were those missing components of training in a field or in the mountains, surrounded not only by nature, but by beasts and dangerous people, since a real battlefield wouldn’t be this nice and even.

It had been a few hours of this, and while I was sweating from the effort, it wasn’t nearly enough to tire me out, so I had the time to look around and see how other people were using the other contraptions.

While doing so, I noticed that Steven was constantly going after Reeta, and since I wasn’t too far away from them, I could hear what they were talking about.

“Come on, coach! I know I can get better! I just need you to train me!” Steven begged as he walked behind Reeta.

The wolf-woman sighed and shook her head. “I’ve already tested you enough. You just don’t have what it takes for me to teach you more.” She quickly turned to look down at him. “If you want to learn what comes next, then you and your body must be up to the standard.”

“B-but, you’re the best! I can’t j-just be left to do it alone,” Steven insisted with flushed cheeks.

Reeta leaned forward to have a closer look at Steven, and his eyes shifted from side to side as if trying to avoid directly looking at her. She smirked and softly trailed the young man’s chest with her finger.

“Oh boy…” she said with a teasing tone of voice. “If what you really want is to make little puppies with me… then…” she paused for a moment as her finger slowly made its way back up to the young man’s face, which was beet red by now.

“T-Then?!” he stuttered before swallowing.

“Then you better get to training!” she loudly said before grabbing Steven by the shirt and tossing him to the other side of the room. The young man screamed in the air before harshly landing next to a rack full of those strange staves with the thick discs at both ends.

“Ouch,” David exclaimed with a frivolous tone since he was training with one of those staves by repeatedly lifting it up and down.

“If you want to have my puppies then you better prove to me that you’re worth it!” Reeta shouted while pointing a finger at Steven.

Steven lifted himself up with effort before looking back at Reeta. “Y-Yes, ma’am!”

The wolf-woman snorted and turned to go over to Victoria, who was awkwardly standing in the arena with her arms raised as if ready to fight, although… her stance was completely broken. If she were to attack someone while standing like that, she wouldn’t even leave a mark.

It was by this point that I decided to stop running on this ‘treadmill’ to take a rest. I went over to David and Steven, the latter remaining somewhat dazed from the toss.

While on the way, I passed by the arena.

“What kind of stance is that, girl?” Reeta admonished Victoria. “You’re supposed to stand like this.”

Reeta moved over to be next to Victoria and stood with a proper fighting stance; one that would make it hard to fight her even if I had a proper weapon to do so. Victoria looked flustered at Reeta as she tried to imitate the stance, but even after the few hours we’d been in here, she hadn’t made much progress.

“Not even close to proper!” Reeta exclaimed, moving over to Victoria to grab her arms and legs as she tried to position the girl properly. “Hmm… even when I move your body to the proper stance… it still doesn't look proper!”

I had to agree with Reeta. Victoria looked as stiff as a tree, making it so it wouldn’t be possible to properly fight, since you need to be flexible and quick when in the middle of combat. I guess that Victoria is better suited for long ranged magic instead of close combat, but even then, it’s always good to know how to defend oneself if the enemy were to get close.

“Snap out of it,” David said once I was close to him and Steven, dropping the heavy tool on the ground, which created a small rumble.

“Hn?! What?” Steven exclaimed, quickly turning his head to look at David.

David smirked similarly to how Reeta does. “I think someone’s fallen head over heels for our coach.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Steven turned red once more as he quickly shook his head. “I-I-I haven’t! I just think that she’s amazing, just like someone I’d like to be!”

With a snort, David started wiping the sweat off his face. “If you say so. But remember that you won’t get a chance unless you’re stronger than her.”

With an embarrassed look, Steven tightly shut his lips. “That’s not what I want! But…” the young man paused for a moment as he looked over at me and then at Reeta. “I’ll be sure to become stronger than everyone else!”

“Is that so?” David replied, unconvinced as he reached for a one-hand weight. “Then you better not waste time.”

Without warning, David lightly tossed the tool at Steven. The young man scrambled to grab it, barely getting hold of it as the weight of it dragged his torso down with it. But it didn’t hit the ground as Steven managed to stabilize himself before glaring at David.

“It’s not good to be throwing these things at people!” He exclaimed.

David shrugged. “It’s good practice. Red Zone Monsters and Shadows won’t just leave things on the ground for you to get ready.”

“S-still! I have to get ready little by little,” Steven argued, moving over to a chair as he started doing a similar exercise to what David had been doing so far.

“Really? What happened to ‘getting stronger before everyone else to become a hero’? David asked while crossing his arms.

Steven paused for a moment before continuing with his exercises, pouting as he did. “That’s going to happen… just not now…”

David widely smiled. “It’s good to hear that you’re still in it!” He then turned to look at me. “What about you? Still feeling it after getting beat up by the coach?”

I tilted my head at the strange question. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because… you give off the aura of someone that can’t lose—no matter what—so I thought you’d be feeling bad about it,” he said as he lowered himself to pick up the staff he dropped.

“It is true that I do feel like I cannot lose, but she did make me realize that I’m much weaker than I thought,” I replied before turning over to look at Reeta.

“That’s weak?!” Steven exclaimed, nearly dropping the piece he was training with. “I thought you were awesome back there with all the rapid movement and the magic!”

“Yeah, I agree. I personally can’t do something like that yet,” David said, grunting as he picked up the staff and placed it on a rack.

“There are… much stronger things out there. I can’t stay at this point,” I said and paid attention to what Reeta was trying to teach Victoria.

“Then I guess none of us can’t stay behind, isn’t that right, ‘Hero-in-training’?” David said with a mocking tone.

Steven ignored him and continued his exercises. It was then that Reeta suddenly grabbed Victoria and tossed her to the other side of the arena. I was just as surprised as Victoria, since until just a moment ago, the wolf-woman was calmly explaining things to her.

“This is pointless!” Reeta exclaimed before pointing her finger at Victoria, who laid on her back while looking back at the coach with wide eyes. “The only way to get the beast out of you, will be with live combat! You’ll learn as you try to survive!”

“W-wait! Are you sure that’s a good idea!?” Victoria asked, her voice louder than ever.

Reeta didn’t bother giving an answer as she took a beast-like stance with a wide smirk plastered on her face. And just like the beast she looked like, she sprinted towards Victoria.

David quickly moved over to the edge of the arena. “Quickly! You have to get up! Otherwise… the wolf is going to eat you!”

“Eeh?!” Victoria screamed, but didn’t move.

It was clear and obvious that Reeta wasn’t trying to actually fight the girl, as her movements were extremely slow when compared to the ‘test’ she had with me. Victoria had all the time in the world to react to the incoming coach, and yet… she just sat there, cowering with her hands.

Sadly for her, the coach didn’t stop and instead of punching or kicking the young girl, Reeta simply bit the girl’s hand.

“Ah! P-please stop! Ow!” Victoria screamed as she pushed Reeta’s face away, but the Beastkin wouldn’t let go.

“Khom ohn! Fhigh Bakh!” Reeta said without letting go of the girl’s hand.

Victoria raised her fist up in the air, and the people in the gym braced for what the young girl could do. After a moment we saw how her fist gathered mana before she quickly dropped the fist on top of Reeta’s head.

Reeta stopped moving as Victoria’s fist laid on top of her head. I worried that perhaps the girl had managed to do actual damage from that attack… However, it was just a meager amount of magic, and it couldn’t have done any damage to the coach; at least compared to what I did before.

I was proven right when David chortled momentarily before bursting into a loud laugh. “What kind of attack was that?!” he continued laughing. “That was just a bonk!”

In contrast to David’s loud laughter, Reeta bit harder on the girl’s hand, who screamed in pain. It seemed like the Beastkin woman wasn't amused at all with Victoria’s martial display as right after doing so, she quickly turned her body around, just like a dog would with prey, dragging the poor girl along with her and tossing her up in the air to the other side of the arena.

Victoria harshly landed on the ground, grabbing her wounded hand as a couple of bite marks were left, which threatened to draw blood. The young girl then looked horrified at the coach, whose stance hadn’t been dropped at all.

“You’re going to get killed if you don’t take this seriously!” Reeta shouted before rushing over to Victoria again, and just like last time, she was intentionally moving slow.

Victoria, on the other hand, was on the verge of tears as she looked with wide eyes at how the wolf-woman was approaching with a fierce glare.

I couldn’t let her just take all that punishment for no reason, so I jumped over to the arena, and with a quick air blast, I pushed the girl away from the charging Beastkin, who passed by right after as she bit the air.

Reeta stopped a few steps afterwards to glare at me, but before she could say anything, I calmly looked at Victoria, who looked surprised about my intervention. “You have to move. Remember what I said to you before: You’re strong, and everything’s okay”—I looked over at Reeta, who was no longer looking at me as she looked at Victoria as well—“She’s not trying to hurt you. It just looks scary, but you can handle it. So stand up and show me that you can do it.”

Victoria frowned as she looked momentarily at her wounded hand. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, after which she stood up. “Right.”

Once she was standing, I could feel the mana in her body shifting, which is when she opened her eyes. They now carried a small blue ring around them as she looked at Reeta.

Reeta smirked and went back into a fighting stance. “You better not disappoint!”

And just like she’d been doing so far, Reeta rushed at Victoria. It wasn’t any different, with the same speed and same intention, but this time, Victoria looked seriously at the incoming Beastkin. The young girl took a stance similar to how Reeta had been trying to teach—even if it was clumsy—and readied herself to receive the wolf-woman.

A moment later, Reeta was in reach of the girl, who shouted as she punched forward with a powerful strike that landed directly on Reeta’s cheek, pushing her face to the side as a shockwave followed right after, causing my clothes to sway.

There was silence in the hall as people waited for Reeta’s response.

A low chuckle followed as the coach slightly nodded. “Good job. That’s more like the beast I wanted to see.”