As the gate opened with a creak, Dexter walked out of the city, now faced with a large expansive field, a large grin on his face as he led the others with him. 

Pausing her light conversation with Damien, Josephine piped up, “So! Training time! I’m inspired after that conversation with Sasha and Jayce! They’re so coooool!” 

Crinkling her eyebrows and using a hand to block the sun and the other to pull her coat around her a little more as gusts of wind blew past, Kaitlyn sighed, watching Dexter spread his arms out, letting the wind blow by him. Turning back towards the others, Kaitlyn clarified the agenda a little seeing the slight confusion in the group, “Seeing that you wanted to do some training, you all were psyched up after that conversation after all, Dexter wanted to bring you here to do some more structured training under us two. For me, I’m always free, and Dexter just decided to... not work.”

“I see, I see,” Damien muttered, spinning around like a top, patting himself to check he had all of his weapons, “A surprise... but a welcome one. Always good to learn from the masters! I heard the stories of you all beating dragons and all of your crazy feats. Training with you will allow my inner shadow dragon to be released! Allowing me to reach my full potentia-”

“Damien, even if your shadow dragon exists, isn’t going to manifest in the middle of a sunny field while it feels like there’s a hurricane around for some random training,” Oliver retorted, doing some light stretches. 

Doing some light shouts with her warm ups, drawing the attention of the long line of carriages waiting to enter the city, Josephine added onto Damien’s words, disregarding Oliver with a wide grin on her face, “We have to train our inner dragons, Oliver! What if we actually run into a dragon? We gotta be able to summon our own!”

Watching Oliver’s soul leave his body as his exasperation spiked, Rachel turned to Damien and Josephine, trying not to laugh, “Don’t say stuff like that! We can’t let old-man Oliver’s blood pressure spike! There’s no blood pressure medication in this world...”

“Oh shit, you’re right...” Josephine murmured, fake worry laced into her voice, “Wait, Rachel come over here... I feel like I saw a vein pop in Oliver’s forehead!”

------

The bystanders, on the other hand... 

Standing beside Dexter, who had finished taking in the wind, Kaitlyn asked, bemused by the bantering in front of her, “Do you know what’s going on?”

“None at all,” Dexter agreed, a smile on his face, “It’s nice though, our party used to banter like this when we were younger. However, it's my sworn duty as guildmaster to get our adventurers training, no time to banter!” 

Frozen, a clear look of doubt on her face, Kaitlyn, shocked by Dexter’s words, pondered to herself. How could someone who had just decided to skip an afternoon of work after not working in the morning could talk about his duty? 

“Let’s stop the talk on shadow dragons,” Dexter walked over, clapping, getting their attention, utilizing his muscular frame to create an imposing presence, “I have a few ideas on training that can be done, but the first problem you all face is... fitness.”

Facepalming from behind Dexter, Kaitlyn murmured to herself, resigned, “Not this again, I remember doing this when I was younger... Hopefully, it's not too much.”

Seeing the confused faces of the otherworlders, Dexter explained, nodding as he turned to the side, looking off at the far off forest, “I won’t deny that all of you are in shape, you’re adventurers and young, it’s much easier to be in shape when you’re young. However! That doesn’t mean you’re the top of the top! So, without any spells to boost your physical capabilities, I want you all to run to that forest!”

“I feel like there are better ways we could be improving ourselves...” Damien murmured to Oliver as Dexter ‘measured’ the distance with some vague arm movements and his eyesight, “Like I get that it's far, but why do we need to go running?”

Setting down his sword and shield, pushing it aside while taking off some extra clothing, Oliver retorted with a deadpan expression, “Did you forget what we talked about with Jayce and Sasha? We should do it, otherwise we’re going to get absolutely toasted. Those stories they told even if exaggerated would mean practically instant death for us. Even more so, did you already suppress the memory of almost having your arm slammed through the table by Sasha in that arm wrestling match you recklessly challenged her to?” 

Clutching his stomach, Damien cried out, taking grievous psychological damage, “You... You didn’t need to call me out like that...”

His voice trailing off, Damien swore, deepening his voice, “My inner shadow dragon won’t stand for this! I’ll toast you all... watch m-”

“Chop, chop! Go! Now!” Dexter barked, having finished his suspicious measuring, “What are you all doing standing around? C’mon, I told you all to get running! Damien, shut up about your shadow dragon! This is our warm-up, valuable time is being wasted! GO!”

--------

Passing the time, sitting on a nearby rock, Kaitlyn, her hair blowing around in the wind, hugged her swords as she watched the spectacle unfold before her. 

Explosions, screaming, shouting... crying?

“I’m glad I’m free~” Kaitlyn sang to herself, watching her four friends run while Dexter used his classic techniques to motivate the party. 

Said techniques were... dubious at best. 

As the four ran, Dexter chased behind, at first, doing some light cheering, yet his words only continued to escalate, and to the chagrin of the runners, his actions as well. 

Seeing the runners begin to slow, Dexter every which while would, ‘trip’, stomping or punching the ground as he fell so hard he would shatter it, sending rock pebbles flying at the backs of the runners. 

When he was not sending debris hurtling towards the runners, Dexter let loose spells, various weaker spells that wouldn’t injure the runners, but still cause pain, forcing them to hike up the pace. 

Lastly, when feeling magnanimous, he ran in front of the four, reading out inspirational quotes, allowing them to have some more mental motivation, letting them push through the pain. 

“Truly a great motivator as always...” Kaitlyn murmured, a small grin on her face, thankful she was no longer doing conditioning. 

The runners on the other hand... held different opinions...

Esiyx

hiiii what's up, here's a chapter!

Thanks for reading~!!!

Another will come tomorrow...

(I totally did not have this written two weeks ago)