Two Steps Back… and One to the Left

Chapter 123

Once Mira and Hetcha departed, Jun took the opportunity to join Andrea for training. Henry had enough fighter levels to accommodate them, but Roksolana showed up to help with sparring. It was interesting to watch when I could spare a moment.

Given I knew jack shit about fighting, I left the training to the professionals in all aspects. Henry broke Jun away from Andrea after a week and started having her spar against other classes. Andrea was the more driven of the two, but Jun seemed to be making better overall progress.

Henry also continued to make an effort to control his stuttering, to varying degrees of success. A process I didn't comment on because speech therapy was another blind spot of mine. I knew of it, but not how it was done. With the agreement to have an honest talk once Jun left already in place, we hadn't spoken much. That was still an improvement over not talking at all, however.

Once Jun was off and training on her own, Andrea doubled down. Naturally, I expected that to have unfortunate results eventually and alerted Henry. He talked to Andrea, but she wasn't dissuaded.

Within a week, Andrea tore a tendon in her leg. An injury that might well have been debilitating under normal circumstances.

I wouldn't have known about it if not for the potion distribution alert. I still needed to get used to the bubbling noise it made. I found Andrea in the training room alone. It was hours after Henry had concluded her lessons for the day. Well past when she should have stopped independent conditioning.

Teleporting in, I had a very long speech about self-care planned. Andrea easily could have suffered alone for hours, given how isolated her room was from everything else. My carefully planned words and stern but compassionate demeanor were forgotten as I materialized.

My hands went straight to my ears as a shrill wail filled them.

Andrea was on the ground, sword still in hand and sweating from the pain as she took a bottle to her lips with her free hand. I'd known she was hurt, but how much pain it caused hadn't been something I'd given any thought to.

I was used to functionally immortal monsters able to respawn and my questionable biology. Being reminded of the wet horror of a living human body was jarring. As much as I missed sensation at times, I couldn't say I was excited to ever end up writhing on the ground with a torn tendon.

Andrea managed to gulp down some of the potion finally. The bottle was shaped like an anatomical diagram of the muscle of a leg from ankle to knee and filled with pale amber liquid. It seemed to help with the pain, and she went from ashen to something approaching a normal healthy color.

"You're going to rest for a couple of days," I said. Andrea choked on the potion she was in the process of drinking and sputtered. She was still having trouble moving, but managed to turn over and get into a sitting position, sword up and potion clutched defensively to her chest. Then, seeing me, she relaxed fractionally.

"What?" Andrea asked.

"Finish that first," I said, gesturing at the bottle. Andrea nodded and chugged the potion.

"As for what I said, you're going to take a training break," I explained. I held up a hand to forestall any comment on Andrea's part. Rather than explain a bunch of sports medicine concepts I only vaguely understood, I just opened a window to show her the security feed of her training.

Even sped up considerably, it was easy to see how the injury occurred. Andrea had started out fine, but her movements became labored as time passed. Finally, her form grew sloppy as fatigue overtook her.

I slowed the footage to regular speed a few moments before she twisted her leg so she could see just how bad it was before that first ear-splitting shriek of pain. I thought I'd heard the worst of it when I arrived, but that had nothing on that first one.

"You overworked yourself. You're going to take a couple of days off and do only minimal conditioning before you train again. Once you do, you're going to stick to the schedule Henry or Roksolana assigns you," I said flatly.

"Why does it matter? The potion fixed it," Andrea demanded, visibly confused.

"Because it won't make you stronger. Yeah, the potion healed you, but it might have wiped out the muscle gains you've been trying for," I explained. Until Andrea's strength or constitution ticked up on her stats, I'd have no idea if her training was working. Even then, I wouldn't know if the potion set her back. Stats didn't have experience bars to track.

"You can't… really?" Andrea asked, frustration and fear blooming. She moved carefully to stand up and face me. I still loomed over her, even at her full height.

"Hopefully not, but it's possible. Your muscles get stronger by healing back from the damage exercise causes. You have to rest properly for that to happen. Potions might well wipe that out without improving anything," I offered to clarify.

"Fuck!" Andrea hissed. Her sword glowed blue as she hurled it across the room. It flew in a lopsided and inelegant spin but decapitated a training dummy. I didn't react but realized I'd functionally clenched my entire body for a moment only when it started to relax.

The display of power and temper had been a little scary though Andrea couldn't attack me. My body also wasn't terribly important, all things considered, even discounting that it was indestructible. My core was the vulnerable part of me.

"You're trying to catch up with Jun," I offered after a moment. Andrea glared but then pulled it back to something sulky and thankfully less murderous.

"I'm higher level, but she's doing better than I am," Andrea admitted.

"Did Henry or Roksolana say that?" I asked.

"No," Andrea said after a moment.

"Ask them about it then. They'll have a reason, and it might surprise you," I offered. Of course, I'd assumed the same thing as Andrea from my casual observations. That didn't mean I was right, though.

"What if I'm right?" Andrea asked, temper flaring again.

"Does it matter?" I countered.

"What?" Andrea asked, clearly caught on the back foot.

"We made a deal. I'm not going to back out of it just because you're struggling a little. If you even are. Honestly, they might be speeding up her training because she's leaving soon, not because she's doing better," I added. The idea pulled firmly out of my tail. I hadn't asked how the training was going. I didn't have anything helpful to offer on that point. That didn't change the fact it was entirely possible.

"Oh," Andrea said, confusion deepening. I wondered if she'd forgotten about that —we were bound by a contract rather than a simple promise.

"Relax, alright? It's going to take time, but I'm contractually obligated to make sure you get stronger," I added to drive the point home.

"Okay," Andrea said finally. She looked a bit sheepish, and I, taking care not to surprise her, patted her on the shoulder. She looked more than a little weirded out by that, but she hadn't screamed. So I chalked that up as a win.

"Cool, so three days minimum conditioning, then you follow Henry or Roksolana's directions for training. That's an order," I said. Andrea smiled and nodded. I figured I had about a week before she tried to weasel out of it and overwork herself, but I smiled back anyway.