134 Chapter 134

"Haya!", Nai shouted, striking at Ace. He blocked with his elbow, and kicked her thigh, whilst also jabbing at the bridge of her nose.

She stepped back, leaning her head even further to also dodge the first that converted to an extended finger-strike.

She then sent a kick to his midsection which Ace slapped away, and then executed a perfect manouever, launching a snap kick to the kneecap, which ended up being a feint. He brought the leg back, and jumped forward with the leg he was standing upright on. Using that same momentum, he flew, and once he was at the peak of his jump, he carried out a basic front kick.

It was a basic kick, and yet, it was carried out which such perfection and speed that Nai had no time to block or dodge. It landed where intended, at the solar plexus, and folded her in half, leaving her gasping for breath.

"Well done, but you jumped too high for the kick, you were jot going for her face, so jumping so high gave her more time to react to it, even if the speed did not allow for any retaliation to be taken. Also, I recommend that in the tournament, once you carry out these types of disabling maneuvers, you finish up with a strike. This will ensure that there is no debate as to who the winner will be. The referee is an expert, but even experts make assumptions, so minimise the risk of the happening if possible.", Zach said, whilst handing him a bottle that contained some type of questionable mixture.

Nai was stretching gently, catching her breath, then, once Zach saw that she was more attentive, he informed her on what she could improve on: "Brutality. Against someone like Ace, that is the way, you have to overwhelm him. Do not let him take control, because the moment he does, you are dead. He focuses on precise, perfect strikes, so the best way to deal with that is to overwhelm him, not giving him a break. Of course, that does not mean leave yourself fully open, since he will be able to exploit you too much, but if you can land a punch, I promise, you have a good chance of winning the fight.", Zach smiled at her, and Nai reciprocated, sticking her tongue out at him. "Hey! It's not my fault he fights so prim and proper, I mean, I can't even let him get a strike in, or he will annihilate me. I would much rather fight someone stupid like Win.", she said, giving Ace a cheeky smile.

"Come on!", Win shouted. They were all watching form the sidelines, as two people fought, and they would then swap. Everyone would fight everyone multiple times everyday, the point of the exercise, was not only to fight and observe, but to also improve stamina, at most, there would be three fights before you fought again, which meant that you had to recover fast. At first, it was not an issue, but after two hours? Yeah, they were all destroyed.

It did wonders for their skills, however, they had all been improving by leaps and bounds, which considering the level they had started at, was no mean feat, considering they had all figured out a fighting style and been training for a long time. The extensive training with other people at their or higher level, allowed them to truly squeeze out their potential, and show improvement at breakneck speeds.

"Ok, I think we have done enough for today, we'll finish slightly earlier, and take a break, I think we deserve it. We have one more week before the tournament starts. Recover back to peak state, and don't train much, you've done more than enough, the Institute will surely appreciate your sacrifice."

"They better", Win grumbled, "This was tiring as hell, I just want to go home and chill."

"Calm down, plus, we can get some dinner, and then relax, so have a shower and meet in the common room in about half an hour?", Zach proposed. All quickly nodded and left, leaving before their sadistic team leader could take away his invitation to relax.

Ace had a shower, taking his time to properly clean himself, he did not sweat much, but a whole day of strenuous exercise had made them all stink pretty badly. He then put on some comfortable sweatpants and a T-shirt before making his way downstairs to the living area.

Zach and Brom were already there, talking quietly, and when they saw him, Zach asked, "Watcha want?", Ace answered, and then went to sit down in one of the comfortable chairs.

If trends followed, Ace assumed they would either watch a movie or play poker, but considering they had finished early, they might do both.

These past days, once they finished training, everyone was so tired that they all went straight to their rooms. They had not really done much other than never ending training, but for the most part, they had not forgotten about their newfound passion, Nai and Win had not at least.

"Oh yeah, Ace, did you hear?", Ace turned his attention Brom, "That guy you dealt with...Randy?", Ace nodded in response, "There are new rumours, d you know anything concrete? More than a few people have asked me about it, FBI and all, but I genuinely don't know much.", Brom's family where on the side of 'good'. They were all involved with various government organisations, all military or defense classed. The official story was FBI, but of course, no one actually believed that. If he was in the school, his family was most certainly more involved than that. Because of his family, he was usually a goof fountain of information, especially when it came to convicts or criminals. In this case, it was a bit weird for him to know anything, but nothing was lost by asking - or at least that's what Ace assumed most people thought.

"Well, don't really know much to be honest, he was crazy, that much was clear, so probably in an institution of some sort.", Ace said, of course, omitting the fact that he was most likely a plant out to kill him. Samantha had not said anything to Ace, which usually meant it was either dealt with, or not worth him knowing. Ace assumed the first one, since otherwise, he would have had a lot more bodyguards, much earlier. In retrospect, that would have been for the best, since he might have not been kidnapped in that case.

'Oh well, the past is in the past, plus, good things came from it, and I was not harmed. Plus, I was able to gain the respect of a few important people, so the experience was most likely worth it in the end.

"Hmmm, then, I guess its all good though, even if the school got quite a scare.", Brom said. Then, before any more constructive discussion could take place, Nai and Win came bounding down the stairs like kids. 'Probably racing to see who's a rotten egg.', Ace thought, then chuckled. Hearing out to see what it was they would quarrel about this time.