The Strongest Family.

Alex was out at the training grounds. It was 5 in the morning, the beginning of his day according to the schedule.

Surprisingly, he was the fist person to arrive. After waiting for around 20 minutes, the first group from the Smirnov family arrived. They were all men, and they didn't pay him any attention.

Instead of being offended, he started to stretch his body. Russia was a cold place, but Hyena's heart helped him to adapt to his surroundings faster.

100 squats, 100 pushups, and 100 crunches later, his body heat was at an optimal level. He had worked up some sweat.

The Smirnov family assassins kept sneaking some glances. Most of them were filled with contempt, while the remaining were out of curiosity.

He got up from the ground, and started running laps around the ground.

1 hour passed by.

The time assigned to the first group for using the grounds was up. They switched places with the second group.

Alex was still running. His stamina had improved considerably. And he wasn't jogging. He had been sprinting at maximum speed for the entirety of the session.

As soon as the next group arrived. Just like the first group, there were some basic flexibility exercises, and then a sparring session.

One more hour passed.

Alex was finally feeling the pain in his calves. His legs were getting tired.

It was time for the next group. Unlike the first group however, they couldn't ignore Alex. All of them had been keeping a track of his speed, and the time he required to complete one lap. Not once did his speed decrease, and his lap times remained consistent, down to the seconds

After a solid sprint of 2 hours, he finally came to a halt. He was breathing heavily, but he was far from being fatigued.

When the next group arrived, they found him seated on the grass, meditating. They began their basic exercises, while Alex continued to meditate. A breathing technique to release the tension in his muscles.

When they were about to begin their sparring session, he opened his eyes. As the assassins were pairing up to spar against each other, he called out to them and asked,

"Can I join you guys?"

He was itching for a fight against a real opponent.

"Sorry. Everyone has been paired up."

The leader of the group said.

"Not a problem. I am willing to take on two people at once."

He stood up rotated his shoulders.

"Are you sure?"

The leader was not convinced that the boy could take two of his men on in a fair fight.

"I am sure. Just ask them not to hold back."

His last fight had been against Zhao Jin. It had been purely based on martial arts knowledge, and there were rules applied to it. He wanted to fight against opponents that would go all out.

The blonde haired leader signaled two of his men to come forward.

"Rest of you, continue with your sparring with your respective partners."

Alex examined his opponents. Huge, Bulky, but flexible and fast.

He took his stance.

They stood there, formless.

'Systema.'

Alex thought to himself. It uses natural and logical movements for maximum efficiency that can be modified for any situation. It was a very new martial when compared to something like Kung-Fu, and it is considered to be a military martial art used by organizations like the KGB back in his world.

Alex took his chance. Sent a kick towards one of them, prompting the target to move away from his ally.

He turned around and sent another kick with his left leg towards the assassin behind him, who raised his arm to block the attack. The kick was powerful enough to push him back, but his block was on point.

Alex didn't have time to relax. He placed his left leg firmly on the ground, and used his hands to grab the punch aimed towards his stomach by the first assassin. The block was successful. He absorbed the attack with his feet.

'Alert!'

A kick aimed towards his head. The previous attack was a decoy to root him at the spot. This attack was supposed to take him out for good.

'I can't dodge it.'

He could feel that they were still holding back.

"I give up."

He raised his other hand to block the kick and said.

The second assassin was surprised. The block had been perfectly timed.

Both of them retreated. Alex looked at his hands. They were red due to the impact of the attacks.

He bowed towards his opponents and said,

"Thank you for humoring my request."

They both nodded and said,

"You don't get blindsided easily, but two opponents of our caliber are still too strong for you. In a real fight against enemies of equivalent caliber, try to escape as soon as possible. Don't linger around and fight back. That would delay the inevitable."

"Thank you for your insight."

He raised his head and said.

'They are the strongest family for a reason. As a unit, it would be difficult to fight back without using my skills.'

"As for martial arts, Advanced Systema does not give you enough time to resist with a form-based technique. Try to adapt to the situation. If you want to counter our attacks with a martial art, Try Jeet Kune Do instead. Wing Chun can also help, but the monkey style martial arts can take too much time to show results against an opponent that can attack constantly."

All in all, it was a good training session.

"Can I ask for your names?"

"Venedikt and Boris."