In the living room of Dalton's residence, Ted was seen to be lying down on one of the cushioned chairs, a folded novel in his right hand and his left hand on his forehead.
"Where are you off to?" Ted's focus was changed from the book he read to Denzel who walked towards the door leading outside.
"Strange of you to be awake by now," Denzel took a little peek at Ted, wearing the hood of his cardigan to cover his head. "I am off for my usual night workout by the way."
"Okay then, if you are back and the door's locked, give me a call."
Without any further reply, Denzel walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Denzel began to jog, moving from one street to the next, taking a five-minute break whenever he felt like it.
After a long-distance jog, Denzel came to halt and turned to walk away, it was time for him to get back home.
Just ahead of him, Denzel noticed the figure of a person stagger towards him. He tried to shift sideways so the person would have a free path to walk through.
In that process, the person purposely budged him by his shoulder, making him miss a step and lose his balance.
"Hey!" Denzel looked back, yelling at the person. He noticed that the person also fell and that the person was trying to raise his or herself from the ground.
The person had a female figure, wearing a hoodie just like him with a cap underneath the hood, tight pants, and black sneakers.
Slowly, the girl's face began to reveal itself, from her mouth upwards. Denzel's face began to grow furious the moment he sighted the lips of the female ahead of him.
Denzel was sure the moment the girl looked up and adjusted her cap, it was Leia, Denzel's greatest enemy.
Leia held her neck as if she were cracking it, tilting her head to the right, a smug smile began to form on her lips.
"Hi, Denzel," There was a short silence the moment Leia said that, the next thing she noticed was the emptiness Denzel's eyes.
"Bitch!" Denzel dashed towards Leia sending his hand to her to punch her, it was quite obvious that he did that from an uncontrollable rage.
When Denzel looked up, he saw that Leia held his fist, a smile still showing on her face.
"Why don't we take this to a more quiet place?" Leia hurled his hand away, running out of Denzel's sight. Denzel followed her, not taking note of what she said earlier. All Denzel had on his mind was to fight against her, and torture her if he could.
After they ran a long-range, Denzel noticed Leia stop at an iron net barricade ahead of her. She looked up and saw how high it was.
Squatting, Leia propelled herself upwards and launched herself over the gate.
Without taking a break, from where he was, Denzel did the same, holding the barricade with his arm, he sent himself to the other side of the barricade and landed in the basketball court of a school.
"This seems to be a great place," Leia cracked her fist, striding towards Denzel. "Why don't we begin now, Denzel?"
Without a second thought, Denzel dashed towards Leia carelessly, sending his right fist towards her once more.
Leia didn't have to do a lot of thinking before she slightly moved to her right, and that made Denzel fall to the ground.
"Ohh Denzel, are you telling me your four years of training are going to waste? You are still got headed as ever," Those words made Denzel cool off from the turmoil that filled his mind.
'Yes, I really did train for more than three years, I should put that into this battle. I should be able to get her with that,' Speculating to himself, Denzel stood and took some steps back.
Leia noticed that Denzel had already become calm, and from the way Denzel acted, she could tell that he was trying to calculate her movements.
"It seems you have gotten repose. Now, let's see who is better at your game," In the split of a second, Denzel saw Leia at his front, propelling a fist towards him immediately she got to his front.
Denzel found himself ducking to dodge that attack. He wondered why but concluded that he acted out of reflex.
Leia immediately ducked, doing a leg sweep to knock Denzel off the ground. Once more, out of reflex, Denzel took two steps back to evade the attack.
"Leia, is it just me that feels like you aren't as fast as you have always been, or did I just get faster?" Denzel glowed when he said that to Leia, but Leia, mystified about what he said, chuckled, telling Denzel to stop teasing himself.
"Please Denzel, are you telling me not to hold back?"
"What do you mean? Are you trying to hide your shame?"
"Shame? What shame? You are still as stupid as ever, I would show you what shame is later, but for now, let's play a little."
Still acting recklessly, Leia dashed towards Denzel, sending different attacks to him, but Denzel was able to dodge most of it, staying as low as he could.
Still staying low, Denzel bent his left leg as if he knelt, and his both hands went to the ground. At that point, it was quite obvious what he was trying to do. He sent his other leg up to launch a kick at Leia. But since Leia knew what was coming, he was able to evade it easily.
Staying as low as he could, Denzel hauled some other attacks at Leia, he punched her lower abdomen and delivered attacks that could paralyze her legs. Then and only then did Leia back off.
"Hmm? Denzel, I have a question for you" Leia could notice the refreshing gleam on Denzel's face.
"Now that I have proved who is more shameless, you can ask your question." Denzel raised himself as he spoke.
"Hmph," Leia snickered, "Let me give you that for now, but Denzel, did you train with wild animals?"
"Huh? How'd you know that?"
"Ohh, I thought as much, because, amongst all the people I have gone against, you are the first person that fights this way. To break it to you, I also trained with animals so I know how to counter your attacks, and now playtime is over."
"I didn't know you also had a habit of talking too much,"
"Naa I don't. Denzel, you are strong, at least more than most of the toughest people I have fought."
"Heh! You are finally accep--"
Before Denzel could finish talking, Leia vanished from his sight, and before Denzel could get a hold of what was going on, he found himself flying to the ground.
"Eh?" Denzel looked up and saw Leia picking up his leg.
"Now this is what shame looks like," Leia said, slamming him to different spots in the basketball court.
She dashed towards him once more, lifting him, she threw him to the iron net barricade that concealed the court. The barricade shattered and Denzel found himself outside the court.
"Argghh!" Denzel reacted to the attack when the sharp pain that engulfed his back became more than it eventually was.
Denzel marveled at how strong Leia was. From the start, when she first dealt with him, he knew how strong she was, but that was nothing compared to her present strength.
'Just how strong is she?' Denzel thought, getting ready to accept defeat. At that point, Denzel felt like he was being watched again, looking around, he noticed an owl land on the top of a building.
'Is that it?' After that thought, Denzel's focus moved from the owl to the pain he felt in his back.
'Guess I should just give up.'
"Ohh, this is your limit, huh? You weakling, you couldn't protect your friends, and now you wasted almost four years on worthless training that got you nowhere. I guess you would be better off dead, I should end it now."
Those words hurt Denzel, and that made Denzel lose it completely.
'Do I have to result to that?' Denzel forced himself to get up. As he did, Leia could notice the slight transformation in Denzel's body.
"Ohh that again? I chose to fight you as a beast then, but now, I would love to show you the difference in our strength."
Leia walked to Denzel slowly, waiting for Denzel to transform completely before she could do anything.
At complete transformation, Denzel felt like more energy had been reinforced to his body and that gave him a little hope that he might be able to hold off against her. He flew towards her as fast as he could, placing his both Eagle feet on her shoulder to lift her.
The first part of his plan was a success, meaning it was time for him to take his next step which was to take her to a very high altitude and release her to make her fall to the ground.
Denzel saw it as an absolute victory, and he began to feel delighted about how he could end his only misery.
While Denzel was still enjoying his happy moment, he felt a heavy force pull him down. At first, he didn't get it, but after looking at his feet, he saw Leia pull his feet back down with her hands that held his leg.
Leia successfully got her legs to feel the ground and after that, still holding his Eagle legs, she flung Denzel to the ground.
That attack was the last for him, and he felt his Eagle form transform back to his human form. He was completely worn out that he couldn't help it.
'I am weak.' He thought to himself as he began to hear the sound of sirens get louder. He could sense the bright light that came towards them.
Denzel also noticed the Owl fly down towards him, but before he knew what was going on, He felt like his body was picked up by someone, taking a look, he found out it was a Cheetah.
"Gray....son?" That was the last word he said before he lost consciousness.