It had taken quite a bit of effort to finally drag Saint King Halo off the training track. Teraizumi Shinji wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a breath.
As time passed, the weather was only getting hotter. And yet first thing in the morning, Saint King Halo had still insisted on joining training. After a long session of persuading her otherwise, Shinji felt as though he had already exhausted himself before training had even properly begun.
It really did seem that rising temperatures brought out laziness in people. Shinji forced himself to wake up a little more, made sure his condition was back in order, and only then turned to the two trainees still standing before him.
There was not much left to change about Offside Trap's training. With her overall ability continuing to rise, all she really needed now was well-rounded work that steadily improved every stat day by day. This was nothing like the early days, when her numbers had been woefully insufficient. Offside Trap had already developed to the point where all that remained was to pile every one of her attributes to the limit and bring her into her complete form.
Seeing the eager look on Offside Trap's face, Shinji could not help but smile.
As the number of training sessions kept increasing and Offside Trap's stats rose higher and higher, ordinary training placed less and less strain on her. Habit always gave horse girls greater adaptability, and after enduring the same grueling routines day after day, she no longer felt the little emotions she once did toward training, things like worry or fear.
At Offside Trap's current level, unless Shinji deliberately set out to make things difficult, there simply were no methods left that could place truly crushing pressure on her.
Then he turned his gaze to Narita Brian.
She was the one whose growth continued to trouble him. Saint King Halo had already cleared the hardest hurdle of her spring campaign, but Narita Brian's progress was still the issue giving him the greatest headache.
Shinji pointed toward the massive tire.
Offside Trap immediately understood what he meant and headed over.
That left Narita Brian standing alone in front of him. Shinji looked down at her long, straight legs. They looked powerful, but they were still far from truly sound.
He sighed. Brian's situation at present resembled Offside Trap's old condition a little. If she trained at high intensity, there was a real possibility that the unease in her legs would return. But if he avoided that intensity, then at the rate she was improving, not only this year—even by next year, whether she could win even a single G1 would remain an open question.
Battling against time rarely ended well. That had been why the system had tried to stop him back then. Shinji did not regret his choice, but he was all too aware of how thorny the problem now was.
Seeing the sweat that had already begun to gather on Brian's forehead, he knew the warm-up he had assigned was doing its work. Her breathing had already grown slightly unsteady, but Shinji said nothing. The G1 races he had in mind for Brian were at the very least in the latter half of the year, and mostly at tracks like Tokyo. Her stamina and speed both needed to improve significantly, and her guts needed to be strengthened as well.
"Come on."
Leading her onto the track, he watched the rope tied around Narita Brian's waist trail back to a large tire behind her. Compared to the tires used in pure strength training, this one was lighter, but its purpose was different: she would be dragging it while running.
Narita Brian took a deep breath and nodded.
She felt as though she had gone back to the days just after her debut, when every training session had been full and demanding. They had been exhausting and difficult, yes, but she had endured all of them.
"Go!"
Heat surged through her body as Brian began to run.
This exercise required her to sprint from one end of the straight to the other. Shinji had not left her without limits—she had to complete each dash within a fixed time.
"Brian, pay attention to your form!"
As the sessions increased, Shinji naturally extended the time allowance, but the fatigue and soreness in her legs only came faster.
The time limit he had set was by no means generous. From the very first set, Brian was already feeling intense pressure as she tried to run faster while pulling the heavy tire behind her.
The dew still clinging to the turf made the surface slightly slick, and every step Brian took required more force than usual. But the clumps of earth the tire kept overturning only increased the resistance it suffered.
Shinji crouched down and studied the state of the turf. That would help him decide how to adjust the time limit for the next set.
"Brian, swing your arms more. Don't lean forward so much. That tire behind you doesn't leave your legs enough room. That tire is your stride boundary. Stop relying on it to stabilize your balance."
She was leaning too far forward. Each time she stepped out, her trailing foot came dangerously close to the tire. Shinji was not worried about her shoe colliding with it and ruining her balance in one stroke.
What displeased him was the way she was "cheating."
By leaning her body forward like that, Brian would normally become more unstable. But with the weight of the tire acting as a counterbalance, she was using it to achieve a kind of dynamic stability by borrowing against her own body weight.
"Raise your torso a little more. Use your strength to pull it and hold your balance. Balance is the foundation of your speed and your cornering. If you lose your balance, you won't be able to go fast no matter how much you want to."
"You need to find your speed through your balance—not try to maintain this blurry balance through greater speed!"
Shinji's voice rang out loud across the course. Narita Brian clenched her teeth and kept going. She had no way to answer him, but it was true that under her current condition she could not fully do what he was asking.
All she could do was try her hardest and give the best she had.
"Add ten more seconds to the limit. Rest for a minute and a half, then do another set."
At last she dragged the tire to the far end of the straight, right where it met the bend. She stopped there, gripping the rail and turning to look at Shinji.
There was no rushing Narita Brian. Shinji understood that clearly, and that was why he gave her a slightly more generous rest period. Brian clung to the railing and forced herself to recover her stamina.
As a horse girl who could excel even in long-distance races, Brian naturally had excellent stamina. So when the break ended, she was already ready to begin again.
"Not enough, not enough, not enough!"
Shinji's shout echoed across the whole training ground as Brian grit her teeth and tried to go faster.
The extra ten seconds should have been more than enough for a horse girl, but Brian still came dangerously close to exceeding even that on her second run.
Trying to accelerate while also maintaining the strength needed to drag the tire behind her, she was clearly struggling to adapt.
It was not as though she had never done this kind of training before. But before Shinji pointed it out, she had always had the habit of using her own body weight to pin down the tire behind her, achieving a more convenient kind of balance.
"Same rest as last time!"
Shinji's face remained stern as he spoke. He had already made up his mind to prioritize improvement first. There were still all kinds of medicines waiting in the system inventory. This was the path Narita Brian herself had chosen. It was terribly difficult, but Shinji intended to help her with everything he had.
As for the rest of her condition, his gaze darkened slightly as he watched Brian begin her third run.
The sluggishness she was showing now was disturbingly similar to what Offside Trap had once shown during tire training.
Narita Brian would have to rely on her own willpower to endure it.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
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Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
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Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
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Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
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The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
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My Harem Is Indescribable 90
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Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
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Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
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Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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