Progress?

*

(Bernard)

I jumped backwards and took a deep breath, sweat flowing down my brow. I gnashed my teeth and took a stance again. The room had a tense atmosphere as I and Josh were once again engaging in a spar.

I laid both fists before me and focused my eyes. This was a two days after I had used the Sundering Rings against Josh and I had made some notable progress.

Spending twelve hours spamming your innate ability had a way of making you feel like your body was about to burst. Worse, when you had to be fighting an insanely strong individual who attacked like a madman.

I get it though. We can't act as if we're sparring, landing soft blows when we will have to do our absolute best when out in the field.

We had been at it for the whole day after I was done with the brutal physical training which I had been taking more seriously now. I was trying to do more, breaking out of my comfort zone, which got me a nod from the Supreme MILF.

Right now, Gamble was on cool down. I was fighting without any of its abilities active and I have to say, I have improved significantly.

I rushed over to Josh, my body feeling ever lighter as I whizzed through the air at an inhuman speed. I threw a straight punch at his face, which he dodged and I immediately followed up by taking a step closer and viciously drilling my knee towards his chest!

He smiled and threw a fist at my knee, forcing it back to the ground and impeding my balance for a second. He threw a right hook towards me, which had a great force that rustled my black vest as it approached!

I drew backwards hurriedly and found my footing before bolting towards him again. I threw a myriad of punches his way, each full of enough strength to break a concrete wall! I refused to stake my entire body on it because I had learned the hard way that if it failed, I would be dead meat.

Josh raised his hands and diverted every one or my fists expertly and slapping away the others! He then suddenly flashed before me and lowered his body before throwing a powerful straight punch at my chest!

It's force was so strong that I almost felt the impact before it landed. I got goose bumps and my arms crossed before my chest to receive the attack.

Surprisingly, Josh's fist turned into a palm strike right before it landed and I felt an even greater force slam into me on collision!

A strong gust of agitated air blew and I was forced backwards with a light jump before I landed, my heart beating like a drum.

Josh didn't hold back.

I knew for a fact that his punches aren't always forgiving. From time to time, he would prevent himself from going overboard. However, a palm strike was also a dangerous attack. He knew it too. He was an expect at responding to attacks and changing the type of strike he wanted to deliver mid-execution.

When Gamble was on cool down Josh wouldn't fight me using his innate ability. He would just brutally punish me with pure physicality until it was time to roll again.

And that moment was now.

Gamble was off cool down.

"It's time," I said to him.

"Stop saying it like some generic villain and roll already. You better not roll a blank," Josh said with a tinge of impatience. He really hoped that I would roll the Sundering Rings and get to practise with him some more at full strength. He was also fed up with having to stop training for thirty minutes after I rolled a blank.

"It's not like I get to decide that," I said as I opened my palm revealing two red dice.

Without wasting time, I threw them on the ground and the results were...

Dice A: 3

Dice O: 5

Hahahahahahahaha.

I was both surprised and happy.

Frankly, when it came to penalties, the Review category is the worst. But when it came to a successful roll, its my second favourite.

I had gotten a review. Dice O showed that I had 5 words worth of review and I smiled devilishly as I looked at Josh.

Reviewing was not giving a command. It was sort of like giving a description, your thoughts. Naturally, in some cases it was difficult to tell those apart, but the essence lied with the way the wording was structured.

As far as I knew, it couldn't be dodged.

Josh was confused by my sudden excitement. He probably knew that it wasn't the choice he was waiting for.

I pointed my finger at him and uttered five words that made him raise his brow.

"Bro, you are very slow-paced!" I said. I know I added unnecessary wording, but the aesthetic fit the bill.

I saw Josh who was momentarily confused suddenly get covered by what seemed like a hazy static. He groaned and almost kneeled to the ground.

The visual effect didn't last much longer. Josh who had felt the effect of my review slowly and I mean slowly, rose up from his squat like position.

He slowly turned his head to me and as if I was watching a 2160p slow motion video, I could actually see his skin, slowly scrunch up into a frown and his eyes slowly narrow down.

"W...h...a..t.....i...s....g....o.." he spoke in a remarkably slow voice but I didn't allow him to finish before rushing towards him, balling my fist and giving him a vicious punch in the face!

I felt the force of it run through the air and I was excited! I had finally gotten this bastard! He definitely felt that even if he was loving at a very slow speed. Getting pummeled over and over again by him was definitely not a fun experience and I couldn't let bygones be bygones until I landed a punch of my own.

An unexpected thing happened though. As I expected Josh to be flung or at least pushed by the force of my punch at a considerable speed, his body actually floated slowly in the air as it drew backwards!

His face, once again, rippled from the force at a slow speed. He was actually moving in slow motion even as he floated backwards.

This was definitely not what I expected. I had used this ability before but this was my first time using this specific review. The funny thing was, there was a difference between me using Flowmaster and a review to achieve the same result. Ultimately, Flowmaster couldn't make the target go slow even after receiving a hit.

I walked over to the slowly moving Josh and extended by hand to further experiment.

However, my hand stopped an inch from his body.

This bastard has activated his innate ability!

'Goddammit,' I thought with a click of my tongue.

Since I couldn't do anything to him for a while I decided to rest until the effects wore off. Through constant use, I had figured out that reviews lasted for at most a minute.

If I rolled a 1 with Dice O, that was a ten second duration with 1 word worth of review. A 2, twenty seconds with 2 words worth of review and so on.

I had to wait for fifty seconds, seven of which had already been used up.

I sat down. I was tired, but the training had been worth it. I could imagine what I would be like after the two weeks.