"...ice!"
"Alice!"
"Huh…?" Alice(?) lifted her head from her desk, drool covering her chin as she dazedly looked toward the voice.
"Oh, It's just you ■■■, Why did you wake me up? I'm trying to nap here…!" She complained.
"Haaah? It's already the end of class, are you that tired?" ■■■ asked.
"Hnng!" Alice gave a wide stretch as she wiped the drool from her mouth and began to explain, "Yup. I've been working extra lately and this new training regimen I was given makes me wanna sleep forever…"
"Hmm… training? You're training for something?" ■■■ tilted her head and asked curiously.
"Huh? Didn't I tell you? I literally placed first in a race the other day." Alice responded.
"Race? Like track and field? Since when did you have enough time and motivation to be interested in sports???" ■■■ grew even more confused.
"Track and field? Something like that… anyway let's go, don't wanna be late for the second period, do we?" Alice evaded ■■■'s question effortlessly.
"Hm… I guess you're right. Oh, by the way, was the dream a bad one or something?" ■■■ stood up from her desk and casually asked.
"Uh… I wouldn't say so, why?" Alice was caught off guard from the sudden question as she retorted with a question of her own.
"Well it's just…" ■■■ put her finger to her chin thoughtfully, as if she was pondering how to approach what she was about to say next.
Then, she simply said,
"You've been crying this whole time…"
"...Huh?"
Gasp-!
Avalon suddenly shot up in her bed, panting heavily as cold sweat stuck to her body like glue.
For a moment she was stunned, but after looking around for a moment, she calmed down considerably and sighed.
Then she muttered to herself, "...Even 15 years later I'm having these stupid nightmares…"
Soon enough, Avalon fully composed herself and managed to start her day properly.
—
Chris wasn't lying.
The training was somehow even worse than before. A single misstep and she would have ended up with some near irreparable injury. Thanks to Merlin's blessing though, that risk was forced at a 1%...
It would still hurt like hell though.
"Come on! One more time!" Chris shouted at Avalon.
Currently, Avalon was being forced to run with so much weight that her bones creaked. And at full speed at that. That "one more time!" Chris was spouting, was something she already said 50 laps ago…
Apparently, according to her, this was to improve bone density. An Uma Musume's muscles are so powerful that they can exert more force than their skeletal structure can safely withstand. Therefore, the more force she could withstand, the more force she could exert.
Chris also went ahead and got permission for Avalon to skip classes somehow, when she asked how Chris would simply reply,
"Arent you already top of your class? You'll be fine if you miss a few classes."
It's been about 2 weeks since she started training this way and honestly? The results speak for themselves.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
[INSIGHT]
Name: Avalon
Title: King of kings
Condition: Normal
Running style: Great Chase
Speed: B (630)
Stamina: C+ (580)
Power: C+ (600)
Guts: C+ (635)
Wit: D+ (450)
Unique Skill:
★ Sword in stone (Lv. 1)
→Draw the sword from the stone and be recognised as a king of kings
Domain:
★ Userper (locked)
→Currently usurped domains: None
Injuries: None
Year: Junior
Description: This much in 1 month?!
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
That's right. To her surprise, Her Guts nearly doubled and everything else went up by 100. To have this level of development in half a month is unreal.
Of course, not all good things last. This increase was only really initial. Avalon's body had conditioned to the training quickly and after about 3 weeks, the increase in stats was scarce.
When she asked Chris about it, she told her it was because they were training before she went through her maturation stage. Meaning they basically forced a short growth spurt but it was before it was meant to happen.
Chris also told her that it was unlikely she was getting any taller anytime soon because of this which made her a little dejected for a short while.
This is the price of world domination…
"Ava. That's enough for now."
Coming to a sudden stop and nearly collapsing, Avalon haggardly stumbled over to her trainer and said,
"Trainer… hah… hah… you're evil…" bare in mind that Chris has no idea about Avalon's blessing so she really threw her into this expecting a near death incident.
"Well, you're doing well for now. I called in a favour when we started this training and they're finally here so let's go." and without any further explanation she wheeled off into the direction they needed to go.
'I hate when she does that…'
—
Avalon was surprised to see Chris signed a permission form to train off campus and actually get accepted. She was even more surprised by the fact that they were going somewhere off campus to meet this person.
Avalon wasn't a big fan of these old timey taxi's but it's not like Chris could run to the location with her.
And so went an hour and a half ride with Avalon trying to ask questions just to get shrugged off with a "you'll see" from chris.
So, where was the destination Chris was hiding from Avalon?
The Royal Air Force.
"..." Avalon wasn't even phased anymore. The amount of bizarre training methods Chris put her through must have dulled her senses.
"Trainer…" she said monotone, "...Don't tell me flight training's on the regimen."
"Haha… nope. Remember that favor I told you about?"
"From before we left and I was half dead on the turf from your demon-like training…? No I wouldn't say I recall." Avalon remarked sarcastically.
Chris didn't like the sarcasm and dropped her voice in a cold tone, "Don't get smart with me Ava." She said, "Or do you want me to cut back on your snacks that I know you've been hiding from me and eating, even though you shouldn't be…?"
Ava's blood ran cold, "Eek…! Y-you knew about that…?!"
"So you HAVE been snacking behind my back!"
'...Ah.'
"Uuuu… I-it was just a little…" Avalon couldn't do anything but let out sounds of pure guilt.
"...sigh." Chris was clearly disappointed, "Nevermind… we'll talk about this later young lady."
"Yes…" Avalon gave up before she could start, there was no winning against this ruthless trainer.
"So Trainer… Why exactly ARE we here?"
"You'll know them when you see them. They're very tall and seem rather intimidating but… well, you'll understand soon."
"Tall? Intimidating? Wait, who could we possibly be waiting for at a military base…?" Avalon was starting to get nervous, especially given the description and the fact she was barely the average height for umamusme.
Just how tall could 'tall' be?
…little did she know that she would find out not much later when she felt an aura of pure unadulterated dominance overshadow both her and Chris from behind.
'W-what…!' Avalon felt a chill down her spine. The person behind her had to be the person Chris was talking about.
Who could have such an overwhelming presence…?
Avalon snapped her head back to see who it was…
The first thing she noticed was that this person was definitely very tall, maybe about 170cm, which was above average for the majority of umamusume.
Yep, Umamusme. The two horse ears and tail poking out made it kinda obvious. Plus, Avalon doubted a regular human could be so intimidating.
The Uma had vibrantly copper-chestnut coloured long and thick hair that, rather magnificently, flowed and styled in a way that looked as if it was on fire.
She had very sharp and intense golden-brown eyes that were unwaveringly focused on the two. She looked very serious. Her face was, in a word, beautiful. From what Avalon could see, she was a foreigner in some way.
She wore a tailored, high-collar military-style jet black and canary yellow tunic, the
shoulders featured golden aiguillettes, making her look like a colonel of some kind. A white star-shaped brooch sat at her collar, high-cut black racing boots with gold spurs. And finally, a stylized ribbon draped across her chest, reminiscent of vintage American championship blankets.
And the most impressive part… Well, let's just say Avalon looked down a moment after and felt exceptionally empty…
From all this evidence, Ava could confirm,
This was a bonafied American Umamusme!
'She looks so cool…!' This was Avalon's first impression of the tall and 'cool, calm, and collected' looking uma in front of her.
"Oh, here she is." Chris said nonchalantly, turning around with a smile to greet the uma, "Hi Red, how have you been? I'm happy you came."
Then as if the intimidating aura never existed, the uma's eyes softened immensely, what was once stoic now looked overwhelmingly warm and gentle.
Then with an excited smile, the big uma quickly moved in and squeezed Chris with everything she had, she seemed rather enthusiastic.
And then she spoke,
"Ahhh! Chris, it's been so long! I've been great, thanks for asking! And of course I'd come if YOU were the one asking! You rarely ask for ANYTHING!"
The previously dominating aura that chilled Avalon to the bone was now replaced with an immense urge to cuddle the huge uma.
'She's like a cuddly bear…!' Avalon stared, 'Ah, wait!'
Avalon hadn't noticed she was totally immersed in the scene before her; she forgot to even say anything!
"Trainer, who is this?"
"Ah, well… ugh tap tap Red, I'm not as strong as I used to be…!" Chris felt like she was getting crushed by a hug and tapped twice on the uma's arms as if she was in a chokehold.
"Ah!" The tall uma immediately moved away, "Sorry! I was just so happy to see you, hehe…"
'Cute…!'
"Anyway… Ava, this Gentle giant is a living legend from America whose record of 20 wins out of 21 races is currently world famous. Her nickname is "Big Red" but her real name…"
"...Is Man 'o War."
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
[INSIGHT]
Name: Man 'o War
Title: The Colonel
Condition: Great
Running style: Frontrunner/Pace-Chaser
Speed: Unmeasurable (????)
Stamina: Unmeasurable (????)
Power: Unmeasurable (????)
Guts: Unmeasurable (????)
Wit: Unmeasurable (????)
Unique Skill:
★ Crimson Ignition (Lv. MAX)
→ When entering the final corner in the lead, channels raw energy into a sudden, explosive burst of acceleration that shatters the vanguard's pacing
Domain: Crimson Arsenal
→ Grants significant speed boost, negates late fatigue, forces mental strain and panic onto opponents within range and slows them down.
Injuries: None
Year: Retired
Description: An absolute monster. Her stats are unreadable due to not being within the required stat range.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: HUZZAH! We're back!
Also rip all filipinos that were banned off discord. The government really wasn't horsing around!
...
...
...too soon?
My bad...