Time passed in a jiffy. In no time, Dylan had gotten used to living on Earth. Every morning, he would wake up early and swing his sword and do some pushups in the backyard. He knew that it was unnecessary to train so much, but he had fallen into the habit and couldn't change it. It was also a healthy habit so all Dylan did was reduce the intensity of his training. Sherry would even join him sometimes. Dylan would handicap himself and held his hands behind his back while Sherry would use the hand-to-hand combats skills she learnt in Diva to try and to hit Dylan just once.
"Haah, haahh." Sherry panted and rested her hands on her knees. "I'm so much more out of shape than I thought."
"You need to train more. How about we go jogging around the neighbourhood in the mornings?" Dylan handed Sherry a towel to wipe her sweat and suggested.
Sherry accepted the towel with gratitude. She thought for awhile and nodded. "Alright. I don't have anything I have to do and it's better to be fit too."
"Then, we'll start tomorrow." Dylan smiled and said. Sherry laughed nervously and went back into the house to shower. Dylan used the other shower and after the two finished showering, they would eat breakfast like usual. Then they'll watch TV and Sherry would teach Dylan English. Sometimes Janine would visit, but that didn't do much to change their routine. It was just meal, TV, meal, TV and so on.
However, today was different. After breakfast, Dylan and Sherry heard a knock at the door. It was Janine, she never knocked and always invited herself in. Sherry and Dylan got up and went to the door. They opened it to find a group of kids standing at the doorway. Dylan remembered that they were the kids that found him.
"Good morning, Sherry. Good morning, Dylan." They chimed.
"Good morning, everyone. What brings you here so early in the morning?" Sherry asked.
"George said that Dylan was going to teach him how to fight so we wanted to join in to." Frank replied. Dylan saw that all the eyes of the children were sparkling with excitement, even the mature Yasmin who was more shy about it.
"Ah, I remember now. Wasn't that two weeks ago?" She asked.
"I was sick last week so I couldn't come." George honestly revealed. "Can we start today?"
The children were all dressed in comfortable clothes and wore runners. Some of them wore clothes from popular sport brands and whatnot. They seemed raring to go.
Dylan grinned. Over the past two weeks, he had already learnt enough English to understand at least 50% of what someone is saying. He still couldn't speak it but understanding was good enough. "Tell them that we'll start now."
Sherry smiled and nodded. "He said that you can start today."
The children cheered and thanked Dylan one after another.
"Let's go to the park." Sherry proposed. She understood Dylan very well and knew that with his personality, he wouldn't half-heartedly teach the children. At the very least, he'll make them do a few laps around the whole park. When Dylan taught Sherry martial arts, he was also very strict with her. He forced her to improve her stamina and her strength and her speed by two times over the course of just three months. During that period of time, she was also made to learn how to hold a dagger, how to swing it, and everything vital to her survival. It was tough but without it, she would have died already.
The seven of them walked out of the house to the park five minutes away. There was no one in the park as usual, only a few stray cats that made it their turf were hanging around. The cats scattered away from the humans approached and observed in the nearby trees.
When they at the middle of the oval, Dylan put his palm out in front of himself. He pointed at it. "Punch it." He said. The children didn't understand him but gestures were an universal language.
Frank stepped forward and punched Dylan's hand. His punch wasn't very hard and didn't even make Dylan move his hand. He smiled and gestured for another to punch his hand. Just like this, each child took turns punching Dylan's hand.
After they were done, Dylan stroked his chin with a mysterious smile on his face. Honestly speaking, the children were really weak. It wasn't just strength wise but also in posture and technique. When they punched, they relied only on the strength of their arms and totally disregarded their lower body. It would have been very easy for Dylan to trip them all. But that was what made it even more rewarding to polish them all into splendid soldiers. Cough, not soldiers. He wasn't in Diva anymore.
Dylan thought about what to do. He could make them do squats all day to improve their lower body strength but the children would quickly lose interest. He had to do something that would build their interest so they will be able to do mundane tasks in the future. Dylan was troubled. He had never encountered this problem before. All the other people he knew had a strong desire for power and never slacked off their training.
Dylan shook his head. He decided to leave all the troublesome things for another day. For now, he should just assess their basic abilities.
"You see that tree over there? Whoever can run to it the fastest is the winner." Sherry helped Dylan translate and enticed them with prospect of victory. The children's eyes burned with competitive spirit. On Sherry command, they sprinted and dashed towards the tree. They were all the average speed of a child their age, with the fastest just being slightly above average.
"Fiona is first, Yasmin is second, Frank is third, George is fourth and Diana is last." Sherry said. "Now, we'll check who can run for the longest without stopping. Whoever does the most laps is first."
The children were panting and out of breath so they took a short break before running again. As they ran, Dylan followed closely beside them leisurely. The children secretly thought to themselves, 'they're so strict!'. Dylan was watching them so they couldn't even take a short break. They could only slow down for a bit to rest. Of course, they could have just dropped out but their pride would not allow them to do so. The children tentatively ran for a lap around the oval and slowly they began to drop out.
This time Diana was first, George second, Frank third, Yasmin fourth and Fiona fifth.
Dylan smiled to himself. He knew what to do now.