Chapter 429: Running In Circles
Rain put Myrti through her paces as he made her run, then run, then run some more. It was a cruel form of training, but one that had worked to get him over his initial block when it came to enhancement magic, when he was around her age.
His brother had done the same for him, but with a lot more sessions until he was finally allowed to run himself completely dry of mana. The way Rain was doing it would be more dangerous for Myrti, but Rain didn’t have the time for caution.
"That thing you call your ’light’ is mana. Put it to use," he struck out with a whittled branch at her legs.
"I’m" Myrti gasped "trying."
"Don’t just try. Feel your mana. Where it’s going, what you need it to do. You need to hold on to the concept of strength. Or endurance. Or speed. Figure out which one suits you best."" Rain instructed coldly, whipping out the stick again and managing to strike her on the tail.
"Ow!" Myrti let out a string of creative invectives at him.
"If you have breath to swear, you have breath to keep running." He swung for her again, not to strike but enough to let her feel the wind of the branch. It was important he not break her confidence. Her body had quickly found its second wind, and now that she was actively burning her mana, she was creating her third.
Dawn was just about to break, and Myrti had worn a circular trail onto the top of the hill. Rain had helped flatten the space after the first time she tripped as well, and her footprints - still rather humanoid despite the addition of clawed toes - had long since packed the soil where his magic hadn’t.
As the first rays of light seeped through the hazy horizon, Myrti collapsed in a heap, and Rain’s manasight told him exactly what he needed - the girl had managed to run through mana exhaustion and completely drain herself.
Rushing to her side, he propped her against the hill, hoping to whatever gods might be out there that he hadn’t just killed her. He was counting on her half-demon nature for the training to work, but he wasn’t entirely sure if it would be the same as it worked for him.
"Breathe. Focus on breathing," he gathered some mana, careful to keep his lightning aspect out of it, before freecasting it into her lungs along with air.